Fever defeat Liberty in Semi's

Indiana Fever assure their Eastern Conference semifinal series with a 72-62 win over the New York Liberty on Monday. The Fever advanced to host Atlanta on Thursday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.Katie Douglas dominated her matchup with Cappie Pondexter.Douglas handled Pondexter on both ends of the floor. The Fever guard scored 21 points in Game 3, just under her average of 22 points in the series. She also helped hold Pondexter, one of the league's top scorers, to 11 points on 4-for-14 shooting.Douglas' size and smarts were the Prominent elements that forced the explosive Pondexter into numerous bad shots or prevented her from getting the ball at all.Pondexter had been a thorn in the Fever's side the past two years. She averaged 20.8 points in the 2009 WNBA finals and led Phoenix to a 3-2 win. She went to New York and averaged 27.3 points last year in the East semifinals against Indiana, a 2-1 win for the Liberty.

Pondexter nearly did it again in Game 1, but she missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won that game for New York.

Douglas got help from her teammates against Pondexter -- five different players guarded her at some point during the game.Erin Phillips had 12 points and five steals for the Fever, who scored 26 points off New York's 20 turnovers.Nicole Powell led New York with 19 points.

Indiana outscored New York 21-7 from the free-throw line.The Fever led 59-54 with 4 minutes to play when Catchings took over. She hit a 3-pointer, then scored on a putback on Indiana's next possession to push the lead to 10.

Indiana led 40-36 at halftime during a chippy affair that saw Powell and Catchings get called for double technicals.The Fever opened the second half with an aggressive driving layup by Catchings and a baseline jumper by Phillips to take a 44-36 lead. New York went scoreless for the first 3 minutes of the second half, allowing Indiana to take a 49-36 lead.

New York closed the third quarter strong and cut Indiana's lead to 54-48. The Liberty got as close as three points in the fourth quarter, but the Fever responded with their traditional shutdown defense.