Hayes leads Dream against Stars (Jul 17, 2017)

By AP
Published

All-Star Tiffany Hayes and the Atlanta Dream are looking to bounce back from a disappointing two-game road trip when they return home to host the struggling San Antonio Stars for a Tuesday matinee at Atlanta's McCamish Pavilion.

The Dream dropped back-to-back close games at Phoenix and at Seattle last week. Atlanta had leads in the fourth quarters of both games, but couldn't hold on and fell to 3-7 on the road this season.

Hayes scored 19 points and five players finished in double figures, but Atlanta got beat on backboards and allowed the Storm to shoot 51.5 percent from the floor in a 90-84 loss Saturday night.

"Our goal is to get back to .500 after this week," Dream coach Michael Cooper said after the loss to Seattle. "It will be tough, but we can do it."

The Stars enter Tuesday's game at 2-17, by far the worst mark in the league, but did pick up their first road win of the season at Indiana on Wednesday. They couldn't back it up at Connecticut on Sunday, though, faltering in the second half of an 89-75 loss to the Sun. San Antonio was outscored 33-10 in the third quarter against Connecticut.

"Getting our first road win of the season was amazing," Stars coach Vickie Johnson told the Hartford Courant after Sunday's loss. "We worked so hard in practice, so I'm glad it carried over. These past few days were very important for us with the work we put in and it showed."

Hayes, in her sixth year, is headed to the All-Star game for the first time. She was voted a starter for the Eastern Conference. The WNBA All-Star game tips off Saturday at KeyArena in Seattle. She leads the Dream in scoring at 16.5 points per game, good for 10th in the league, and is averaging 1.6 steals.

San Antonio won two of three meetings with the Dream last season, but dropped the first meeting with Atlanta this year.

Hayes scored 16 points to lead the Dream past the Stars on May 31. San Antonio committed 23 turnovers in the loss.

Tuesday's game at McCamish Pavilion on the campus of Georgia Tech University tips off at 11:30 a.m. ET.