Sophia Young-Malcolm is slowly making her way back from an ACL injury that kept her out for all of last season.
Young had her best game of the season, finishing with 18 points as the San Antonio defeated the New York Liberty 87-75 on Thursday evening.
”I’m gaining more confidence every day,” said Young-Malcolm. ”With the injury, there’s a lot of mental stuff you have to go through. You try to just go out and play and let it come to you. You take it one day at a time and hope that it continues to get better.”
Jia Perkins added 17 points while Kayla McBride had 14 for the Stars (4-4) as they used a 21-3 run to end the third quarter to pull away.
”We changed defenses a bit and got a few turnovers that led to easy baskets,” McBride said.
New York (2-5) lost its third straight game. Tina Charles scored 11 points and Alex Montgomery added 10 to lead the Liberty.
”We’ve got to be mentally stronger. We’re not good enough to overcome those types of mistakes. We start turning the ball over and we’re not going to win,” New York head coach Bill Laimbeer said. ”We made a lot of mistakes in the third quarter. They got it going. Once you get going it’s hard to stop a team. … They sensed they had the kill and they went for it and got it.”
The Stars will return home to face the Phoenix Mercury at 7 p.m. at the AT&T Center.
