After 17-game skid, Dream win second in a row

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Betty Lennox scored 17 of her 24 points in the second half and the Atlanta Dream won their second straight game, beating the Minnesota Lynx 73-67 on Wednesday night.

Ivory Latta and Jennifer Lacy had 11 each for the Dream, who lost the first 17 games of their inaugural season before getting their first win Saturday against Chicago.

"We lost enough games for a lifetime," Lacy said. "We're just resilient. We keep fighting and we find a way to come back. We make scrappy plays, we somehow find baskets. That's been a character of our team the whole season, it's just that now we're finding a way to pull out those W's."

Seimone Augustus led Minnesota with 17 points. Nicky Anosike and Candice Wiggins added 11 for the Lynx, who have lost four of five and nine of 12.

Trailing 66-60 with 3:11 to play, four different players scored during a 13-1 run by the Dream to finish the game, including a three-point play by Lacy and Tamara Young's layup after a long outlet pass from Kristin Haynie.

Haynie scored on a drive with 35 seconds to play for a 71-67 lead.

Alison Bales, acquired from Indiana last Saturday, had 11 rebounds. She also blocked a shot by Nicole Ohlde with 24.9 seconds to play.

"She's played big for us in both games she's played for us," said coach Marynell Meadors. Bales had five rebounds Saturday.

Minnesota led by 16 midway through the third quarter, before Lennox scored nine points in a 15-4 run to get Atlanta within 54-49 at the quarter's close.

"It was just a matter of being aggressive and taking shots with confidence," said Lennox, one of two Atlanta players with more than three years of experience. "I've been not as aggressive as I should be, and I've got to continue to do it every game. I try to do what I can to get everybody else shots and then sometimes I find myself forgetting about myself."

A free throw by Lennox, who spent the first three years of her career in Minnesota, got the Dream within one with 6:42 to play, but Wiggins answered with a 3-pointer. Wiggins was named the WNBA Rookie of the Month for June earlier in the day.

Minnesota, which entered the night making 76.2 percent of its free throws, made just seven of its final 16.

"You have to knock them down in crunch time, and unfortunately tonight we didn't," said coach Don Zierden, who added that his team missed at least six layups.

Back-to-back baskets by Augustus put the Lynx up 19-6 after one quarter. Atlanta shot just 16.7 percent in the period.

"We just looked at each other and we're like 'not again,' and we kept fighting and fighting and pushing and pushing and getting stops," Lacy said.

Minnesota led 15-2 last Saturday in Seattle, before losing 96-71.