USA – Shock beat Liberty to set up showdown with Silver Stars

DETROIT (WNBA) – The Detroit Shock scraped a 75-73 win over the New York Liberty on Monday to advance to the WNBA Finals for a third straight year.

The triumph gave Bill Laimbeer’s team a 2-1 series victory and put them into a title showdown with the San Antonio Silver Stars. The best-of-five Finals tip off on Wednesday in San Antonio.

The Shock won the title two years ago by beating Sacramento while last season fell to Phoenix in the championship showdown.

On Monday, Deanna Nolan had 21 points and Taj McWilliams-Franklin poured in 15 of her 19 points in the second half for Detroit.

McWilliams-Franklin, 37, only joined the Shock from Washington during the Olympic break following a season-ending injury to Cheryl Ford.

New York trailed by as many as 20 points in the first half but never lost their concentration and made things interesting at the end.

A pair of Janel McCarville free throws with 40 seconds remaining trimmed Detroit’s lead to 75-71 with 40 seconds remaining, but Detroit were able to run most of the time off the shot clock on their next possession before the Liberty fouled Alexis Hornbuckle.

She missed two at stripe but New York couldn’t take advantage, with Shameka Christon missing an attempt from long range. McCarville grabbed the offensive rebound and teammate Ashley Battle attempted a three but also missed.

Christon ended up adding two free throws for the final score.

FIBA