Surging Dream beat Fever

Erika De Souza scored 17 points and Angel McCoughtry added 16 to lead the surging Atlanta Dream to a 76- 60 victory over the struggling Indiana Fever on Tuesday in Atlanta.

The Dream, winners of four straight, lead the WNBA with a franchise-best 8-1 record.

Shavonte Zellous finished with 18 points and Karima Christmas had 16 for Indiana, which dropped to 1-7. The Fever are without injured scoring threats Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas, who have back injuries. The seven-game losing streak is Indiana’s longest since its inaugural season in 2000.

The defending WNBA champions had just eight available players, with Catchings sidelined for the second straight game and Douglas out for the sixth. The Fever began the game with the league’s worst scoring average of 67.2 and matched a season low.

The Dream took their first double-digit lead at 3222 on Jasmine Thomas’ 3 with 3:27 left in the second quarter.

Indiana cut the lead to three early in the third on Christmas’ three-point play, but Thomas added another 3 a few minutes later to make it 46-36. The Dream’s biggest lead was 19, a mark first hit on Tiffany Hayes’ 20-footer in the final minute of the third.

De Souza added 10 rebounds and four blocks. McCoughtry, the league’s second-leading scorer, tied a career high with seven steals. Thomas, Aneika Henry and Alex Bentley each finished with eight points for Atlanta.

Atlanta improved to 5- 0 at home, while Indiana fell to 1-3 on the road.