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Fever down Dream to advance to conference finals

Oct 3, 2012 - 1:18 AM Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - Katie Douglas scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Indiana Fever to a 75-64 victory over the Atlanta Dream in the decisive Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Erlana Larkins added 16 points and 20 rebounds, while Tamika Catchings had 16 points and 11 boards for the Fever, who will face the Connecticut Sun in the conference finals on Tuesday.

Briann January also contributed 16 points in the win.

Lindsey Harding paced Atlanta with 17 points and seven assists. Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle finished with 16 and 10 points, respectively, for the Dream, who were trying to eliminate Indiana from the playoffs for the second straight season.

The game entered the break tied at 39-39 after a first half that saw four lead changes and two ties, but the Fever opened the third quarter with 11-4 run that included seven points by Catchings to jump out to a 50-43 lead.

Atlanta, though, answered with an 8-4 swing to get within 54-51 at the end of the third.

The teams traded layups to start the fourth quarter to keep it a three-point game, but Indiana netted the next seven points to run out to a 63-53 lead and were never threatened down the stretch. The Fever led by at least six points and by as much as 16 over the final seven-plus minutes of action.