ATLANTA – Scholanda Robinson was late getting back to the visitors' locker room at Philips Arena, but none of the Monarchs seemed to mind.
As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted by teammates' applause and cheers.
The reserve scored a career-high 17 points to lead Sacramento to a 79-66 victory over Atlanta, extending the Monarchs' winning streak to five. It was their second win against the Dream within five days.
About five minutes later, more raucousness could be heard behind the closed door. This time, the cheers followed coach Jenny Boucek's praise.
"Offensively, she was not missing the moments and was very aggressive attacking their defense," Boucek said. "She epitomized the identity of our team tonight."
Aggressive indeed. Atlanta guard Ivory Latta said Robinson caught her with an elbow midway through the fourth quarter, knocking out the cap from a right front tooth.
Robinson said she didn't feel the game was any more physical than usual.
"That's just the nature of the WNBA. You get banged around and beat up every day," she said. "We're used to seeing a lot of teams play us like that because they think they can get the upper hand when they do that."
Robinson and rookie Laura Harper (a career-high 12 rebounds) helped Sacramento keep control most of the game.
The Monarchs (13-11) did not intend to replay an episode of Friday night's game when the Dream (3-22) rallied from a 19-point deficit in the fourth quarter to almost steal the win.
"In spite of their record we know that they never die," Ticha Penicheiro said. "They could be down by 30 and they will continue to fight until the buzzer goes off."
The Dream did scoot to within three before the Monarchs went on a 14-3 run to close the first half. Sacramento never budged again, taking advantage of the Dream's shooting woes. Atlanta shot 3 of 19 from three-point range and 34.8 percent from the floor overall.
The Monarchs struggled somewhat against Atlanta's tall twosome of Allison Bales and Katie Feenstra. Bales finished with a career-high five blocks, and Feenstra tied a career-high with four.
Despite the Dream's 12 blocks, Harper, Crystal Kelly and Robinson continually ventured into the lane, helping the Monarchs to a 34-32 advantage in points in the paint.
"We're an aggressive team offensively and we're not going to change that. We're not going to start settling for jump shots, get passive, get scared," Boucek said. "We're a team that's built on freedom and aggressiveness and playing fast. We can't adjust that no matter who we're playing against."
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