2014 WNBA: Angel McCoughtry leads Dream to 83-71 win over Sun

Angel McCoughtry scored 12 of her 22 points in a decisive third quarter as the Atlanta Dream defeated the Connecticut Sun 83-71 Tuesday night at Georgia Tech's McCamish Pavilion.

Atlanta took a 39-31 lead into the half but the game away by outscoring Connecticut 28-19 in the third. The Dream connected on 12-18 shots in the quarter and recorded nine assists. McCoughtry emerged from halftime with a vengeance after spending the final minutes of the first half on the bench after a nasty collision with teammate Jasmine Thomas. She went 5-5 from the field in the quarter and helped spark a 16-6 run by the Dream with seven straight points.

Once again Atlanta's defense was their calling card as they held Connecticut to just 39 percent shooting for the game. Atlanta turned 21 turnovers by the Sun into 17 points and hammered them in the paint with a 46-30 advantage.

McCoughtry's 22 points came on 8-14 shooting. Atlanta shot an even 50 percent from the field and were 3-5 from three-point range. Tiffany Hayes went 7-9 from the field and finished with 17 points. Erika de Souza added 13 points and seven rebounds while Sancho Lyttle finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Rookie Chiey Ogwumike led the Sun with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Former Dream guard Alex Bentley added 19 points of her own in the loss. Katie Douglas added 16 points and four assists for the Sun.

With the win, Atlanta improves to 13-5 on the season to take a 4.5 game lead over the Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference standings. Connecticut falls to third place and are five games back of the Dream. Atlanta hits the road this weekend for another matchup against the Fever on Saturday.