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NEW YORK -- The East was tired of losing, tired of hearing about how the West had dominated the WNBA All-Star Game.
So MVP Katie Douglas and her Eastern Conference teammates went out Wednesday and dominated in a convincing 98-82 victory.
It was a sweet win for the East, which had lost the previous six contests by an average of 12.3 points.
"Everybody's been talking about it," said Douglas, who had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists in her All-Star debut. "We wanted to show that we could compete with them. Maybe they were surprised with our defensive effort. We just wanted to come out and put on a good show ... our first and foremost goal was to win."
West coach John Whisenant said the East was motivated to end the streak.
"We got beat by a team that was more committed," he said. "They shot the ball better, ran the floor better and rebounded better."
Four players from the Connecticut Sun were in the lineup. Douglas said it especially helped her to have her teammate, point guard Lindsay Whalen, on the floor because Whalen knows where Douglas likes to receive the ball.
Douglas got the East off to a good start as the teams combined to hit eight three-pointers in the first quarter. Douglas hit three and finished with four for the game.
Her performance didn't surprise East coach Mike Thibault, Douglas' coach with the Sun.
"It's the same performance we see every night in Connecticut," Thibault said. "She has been our leading scorer. I think we get spoiled by her in Connecticut."
Thibault put all four Connecticut players on the floor -- Douglas, Whalen, Margo Dydek and Taj McWilliams-Franklin -- with 6:55 to play in the game. "It was fun to see them play together a little bit," Thibault said.
Added Douglas, "It kind of felt like a regular game, a regular practice."
The West seemed to have everything in its favor going into the game, as its starting lineup made up half of the league's All-Decade Team. Dawn Staley said it was a reunion of the 2004 Olympic team, referring to Athens teammates Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Yolanda Griffith and Sue Bird.
Staley said the reality of losing set in during the third quarter, when the East built a 79-56 lead.
"We went into halftime believing we could go on a little run, but they came out on fire," Staley said. "They took advantage of every opportunity to open the game up, and we could never recover from that."
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