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Young scores 24 points to lead Sliver Stars

Jul 23, 2009 - 7:44 PM SAN ANTONIO(AP) -- Sophia Young scored 22 of her 24 points in the first half, reviving the struggling San Antonio Silver Stars in a 84-65 victory over the Indiana Fever on Thursday.

The Silver Stars, who had lost three of their last four, also stepped up defensively, holding leading All-Star vote-getter Tamika Catchings scoreless on 0-for-9 shooting.

"We did all the right things defensively and made our offensive play easy," Young said. "This was the game we wanted to win before going into the All-Star break. We came out with a very strong mentality."

Young, a Western Conference reserve for this weekend's All-Star game, played only seven minutes after halftime. Catchings played only three as the Silver Stars pushed the lead to as much as 30 points in the first half.

The Fever cut the margin to 13 with reserves from both teams playing in the second half.

"Our first five really looked lethargic," Fever coach Lin Dunn said. "Our shots were flat. We're looking forward to a break so that we can get some rest and regroup and just get focused on the second half of the season."

Indiana (12-4) had won 12 of 13 coming in, but was outshot by the Silver Stars, who were 59.4 percent from the floor in the first half compared to 24 percent for the Fever.

The biggest difference was at the 3-point line, where San Antonio went 6-of-11 before halftime while Indiana was 1-for-10.

Young finished 9-of-14 from the floor in 25 minutes. She was joined in double figures by Vickie Johnson, who had 16 points, and Becky Hammon with 15.

None of Indiana's starters reached double figures. Jessica Davenport came off the bench to score 13 points and rookie Briann January had 11.

"It was great to see us come out with intensity against a good team," Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes said. "That was the easiest basketball game so far for us. We didn't struggle today."

It was the third straight sub-par shooting game for Catchings, who was 2-for-12 in a loss at Connecticut when the Fever had their 11-game winning streak snapped.

She declined to speak afterward.

"She expended an enormous amount of energy in the Washington game and in the Connecticut game, and I thought she looked both mentally and physically fatigued," Dunn said. "She rarely goes 0-for-9 and has no points."

With starting center Ruth Riley missing her second straight game with left Achilles' tendinitis, the Silver Stars shuffled their lineup but still managed to open a 17-point lead in the first quarter. In place of Riley and point guard Helen Darling, San Antonio started Belinda Snell and Erin Perperoglou and shot out to 17-4 lead.

Young, Johnson and Hammon did almost all the damaging, combining to go 10-for-12 in the quarter. After Catchings missed her first five shots, she went back to the bench for the remaining 1:50 and the Silver Stars opened a 27-10 lead heading into the second quarter.

Indiana tried to match the offense with 3-pointers, but missed its first six tries from beyond the arc. League-leader Ebony Hoffman missed two of them.

Young hit her first two 3-pointers, and had 20 points when she made a layup with 3:51 left before halftime to give the Silver Stars a 41-18 lead.

Catchings, playing only 13 minutes, was 0-for-7 at the break.

"Let me give the Silver Stars an awful lot of credit," Dunn said. "They've got some situations with injuries and I thought they went small and created a lot of problems with their quickness and their speed."