MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Lynx today announced that the team has acquired former University of Minnesota women’s basketball star center Janel McCarville, along with a 2014 second-round draft pick from the Tulsa Shock in a three-team trade. In the deal, Minnesota sends restricted free-agent guard Candice Wiggins to Tulsa in a sign-and-trade. Tulsa also receives forward Nicole Powell from the Liberty and New York’s 2013 third-round pick, while New York receives the rights to guard Deanna Nolan and Tulsa’s 2013 third-round pick.

“We are very excited to announce the acquisition of Janel McCarville,” said Lynx Executive Vice President Roger Griffith. “McCarville is a veteran center with multiple years of playoff experience, making her an ideal fit for our roster. A former #1 overall draft pick, she will fit in seamlessly with our roster and make an immediate impact this summer. Her offensive efficiency and defensive presence will be invaluable for our team as we try to reach the Finals for a third consecutive season and win another championship.”

“I’m very excited to come back to Minnesota and join the Lynx,” said McCarville. “I can’t wait to team up with Lindsay again; it’s always fun playing alongside a point guard as talented as she is. When you add Seimone, Maya, Rebekkah and the rest of the team, it’s going to be a lot of fun this summer. I’m looking forward to doing whatever I can to help bring another championship to Minnesota.”

McCarville emerged with the Liberty in 2007, being named the 2007 WNBA Most Improved Player after averaging 10.4 points and 4.8 rebounds on 54.6% shooting from the floor. She continued to thrive over the next three seasons with the Liberty, averaging 11.2 points on 51.1% shooting, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in her four years with New York. Originally selected by the Charlotte Sting with the first overall pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft, McCarville was acquired by the New York Liberty with the third overall pick in the WNBA Dispersal Draft on Jan. 8, 2007. She last played in the WNBA during the 2010 season.

The 6-2 center has played overseas during the last three seasons, spending two seasons with Familia Schio in the Italian League before joining Canik Belediyesi in the Turkish Basketball League for the 2012-13 season. She averaged 11.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game on 52.6% shooting this winter.

“We’re looking forward to having Janel in a Lynx uniform this summer,” said Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. “She’s an excellent passing big, which is a perfect fit for our system and a great complement to the high quality three-point shooters that we have on our roster. Janel is a highly efficient post player that will fit right in with our current roster, giving us yet another option on offense.”

A native of Steven’s Point, Wisconsin, McCarville teamed up with Lindsay Whalen for three seasons (2002-04) at the University of Minnesota. In her four-year collegiate career, McCarville and the Gophers never missed the NCAA Tournament, including reaching the program’s first ever Final Four appearance in 2004. A two-time Wade Trophy Finalist (2004, 2005), an award given annually to the best women’s basketball player in the nation, McCarville finished her collegiate career with a number of school records, including field goal percentage (.582), blocks (196) and double-doubles (49). In addition, she currently ranks fifth in scoring (1,835), second in rebounding (1,206), seventh in assists (310) and third in steals (273).

As a junior, McCarville was a key member of Minnesota’s 2004 Final Four team, averaging 19.4 points, 15.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists on 57.4% shooting during the Gopher’s five-game tournament run. She was especially brilliant in the Elite Eight, as the seventh-seeded Gophers upset top-seeded Duke, scoring 20 points, grabbing 18 rebounds and dishing out 6 assists in Minnesota’s 82-75 win. As a senior the next season, McCarville led Minnesota back to the Sweet Sixteen for just the third time in school history, averaging 13.0 points, 13.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.3 blocks during tournament play.

With McCarville, the Lynx roster now consists of three former #1 overall draft picks (Seimone Augustus and Maya Moore) and seven former top four draft picks (Monica Wright, Devereaux Peters, Amber Harris, Lindsay Whalen).

Wiggins played in five seasons with the Lynx, averaging 10.4 points and 2.2 assists in 24.3 minutes per game, shooting 36.4% from three-point range. As a rookie, Wiggins was named the 2008 Sixth Woman of the Year, averaging 15.7 points in 27.5 minutes per game off the bench, the league’s then-highest scoring average ever for a player off the bench.

“We appreciate everything Candice has done for our organization in her five seasons in Minnesota,” said Griffith. “She was a key member of our bench during our Finals runs over the past two seasons, and a big part of our 2011 championship team. Candice plays with tenacious energy, and in her five seasons, we always knew she was going to leave it all on the court. We wish her nothing but the best in her future.”

The 2012 Western Conference Champion Minnesota Lynx kick off the 15th season of professional women’s basketball in Minnesota at Target Center on June 1, facing off with the Connecticut Sun at 7 p.m.

Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx Head Coach

On the Game 3 loss:

“It’s no question we saw things that have to be fixed to be competitive in Game 4. We have all done this for a long time. You win games, you lose games, and you figure out how to put it behind you. The best way, for me as a coach, is to watch the video and take action steps from there. Players are resilient; they have short term memories which are great. Coaches, we will stew about it until the ball gets tipped up and we have something else to think about.”

On the mood of the team:

“[We are] disappointed. I think anytime you lay an egg in the WNBA Finals, it doesn’t feel very good. At the same time, we understand the nice thing is that the series is not over. We want to put Indiana in a situation for Game 4 – they have to win the game, they don’t want to come back to Minnesota. That’s one of the first things out of my mouth. We are going to do our best to bring them back to Minnesota.”

On if she wants the team to remember the loss enough that they don’t let it happen again:

“Yes. You are the point in the season that you shouldn’t have to say, ‘Hey, we don’t want that feeling again.’ There are a lot of things that went into play, in that game that led to the way that we looked, and I am confident that those issues will not be there for Game 4.”

On the Lynx leadership:

“I feel blessed to walk in this morning and be in front of the players that I have. [We have] great leadership, great resolve, tremendous players. I like our chances.”

Seimone Augustus, Minnesota Lynx Guard

On whether the Lynx need to carry Game 3 in their mind as motivation: 
“We don’t want to remember any of last night. Nothing went our way last night. What we do want to bottle up is the energy and intensity that the second group, the bench players, came in and played with. We’ve got to come in knowing that Indiana is going do everything in their power to try end it here and not go back to Minnesota, and we have to do everything in our power to get it back to Minnesota [for a Game 5].”

On Minnesota Coach Cheryl Reeve’s comment that Indiana might have more pressure on them entering Game 4: 
“It’s a little bit of pressure both ways. Of course, we’ve got the obvious pressure: if we don’t play these next 40 minutes as best we can, our season is over. And for them, being in this situation in 2009 and being in a similar situation now, to have to relive that would be disappointing for them.”

On whether the physical nature of Game 3 might put the Lynx back on their heels in Game 4:
“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. I’m not making any excuses. You’ve still got to go out and play the game, and the referees are still going to make their calls. They have just as hard a job as we do as far as going out and performing; they have to make sure they control the game. But what we can’t do is not be aggressive. We’ve got to go out there and be aggressive and see how they make those calls and see how the game is going to be played. 

On whether she is a better player with her back against the wall:
“I don’t know, maybe. I don’t like being in that situation. I’d rather be up right now in the series instead of being down one game to two; but we’re going to play it out, give it everything we have and try to bring it back to Minnesota.”  

Rebekkah Brunson, Minnesota Lynx Forward

On the mood of the team:

“We are disappointed with yesterday – that is done and over with. We can’t do anything about that. We have to be optimistic about tomorrow and being able to do what we have to do. We haven’t lost any confidence we still know what we are capable of doing – so we are just going to step on the court tomorrow and prove it.”

On what the Lynx have to do to create more offense:

“We have to be more aggressive. I think that we got a little bit passive in the things we wanted to do. We didn’t get transition going. So tomorrow we are going to try and come out and get thing going quick and not try and overthink anything or try and overanalyze and go out there and play.”

On what they do to take advantage of Indiana being down two players:

“Them being down two players has nothing to do with anything. They have been playing well without them. So it’s not like this is something new that just happened for tomorrow night. They have been playing extremely well with the team that they have and they are going to play that way tomorrow.”

Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Minnesota Lynx Forward/Center

On how the team rebounds from the Game 3 loss:

“Easily, we play in the WNBA. Even if we had won, we don’t take that game into the next game. It was a hard game and a loss is a loss. At the end of the game or end of the season there are no asterisks, if you win by 30 or if you win by one – it’s a just a win. We got to the Finals winning by one. You win, you win. We recover. We slept, the sun came out this morning, not a lot of it, but we woke up and moved on because we’re still able to play tomorrow. We’re pretty happy we get to play tomorrow and not have to wait another three days for a game.”

On whether it is more difficult coming back from a larger margin of defeat:

“When you get beat like that what can you say, you just didn’t play hard. I don’t know how that will change anything, we’re still playing and that is important enough. That is the only thing that matters that we play a Game 4 tomorrow. We’re actually on a better end than they are because they have six players and we have 11. Our starters didn’t even play in the fourth quarter. Come Sunday we’ll be rested and ready to go.”

Maya Moore, Minnesota Lynx Forward

On the Lynx performance in Game 3:

“It is always disappointing when you don’t perform up to your potential. We’re going to stay confident and stay together. I think that is the most important thing, out of all the games we’ve played this year that was probably one of the few games we were disconnected, both on the offensive end and on the defensive end. We just need to get back to who we are. There are several little things we want to continue to focus on that we will.”

On Indiana’s Game 3 dribble penetration:

“Dribble penetration is always something that we don’t want to happen where they get to the heart of your defense. Indiana is very good at that, penetrating and kicking, so we’ll work on making that difficult for them and really locking in even more is going to be huge for us tomorrow.”

On whether the Fever are more problematic without Katie Douglas:

“I don’t think it changes who they are. They’re still Indiana, they’re still going to try and be aggressive and get the 3-point shooters open by penetrating.”

On what the Lynx not losing back-to-back games often can be attributed to:

“The toughness of this team and us not wanting to go down without a fight. Just playing as who we are and getting back to that. That is who we’ve tried to be all season and we’ve got leaders that won’t let this team fall and get into that habit. It is a good thing for us. It is one game, we put ourselves in a position for an elimination game but the season isn’t over, we still have an opportunity to win and all we’re thinking about is tomorrow.”

Lindsay Whalen, Minnesota Lynx Guard

On the Lynx game plan and how they can better execute it in Game 4:

“That was a big key. We need to be coming out with a little more aggressive mindset and mentality. You wish you weren’t saying that in the Finals that you have to get up there and be more intense and be more on the ball but we need to have that. Good thing for us because we have another game tomorrow night to come out here and do better. We have a good opportunity to come out and play better tomorrow night

On what the team talked about in the locker room after Game 3:

“The fourth quarter we really turned things around. Candice (Wiggins) did well, Erin (Thorn), (Devereaux Peters) really came in, Monica (Wright) gave us some great minutes and really turned things around for us. That was really good for us.”

On the fourth quarter:

“That was great. That showed what can happen when a team turns up the aggression, turns up the intensity and really gets after it. That is what you need to do.”

On playing in front of a sellout Indiana Fever crowd:

“You just have to come out and understand that you need a better mindset and better mentality in handling that. It was a great atmosphere, so fun to play in that but we have to do a better job of going out and just playing, not thinking too much. We’ll come out tomorrow and we’ll be ready to go. We’ve had a chance to think about it for a while now and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

SERIES NOW HEADS TO INDIANA Seimone Augustus scored 15 of her 23 points in the 3rd quarter as the Lynx defeated the Fever 83-71 in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals to even up the series at a game apiece on Wednesday night. Maya Moore added 18 points including 10 in the 3rd quarter. Game 3 is Friday in Indiana.

Series tied 1-1 

Game 1 – Sunday, October 14, Indiana 76, Minnesota 70 

Game 2 – Wednesday, October 17, Minnesota 83, Indiana 71 

Game 3 – Friday, October 19, Minnesota at Indiana, 8:00 PM local, 8:00 PM ET, ESPN2    

Game 4 – Sunday, October 21 Minnesota at Indiana, 8:00 PM local, 8:00 PM ET, ESPN2         

Game 5 – Tuesday, October 24* Indiana at Minnesota, 7:00 PM local, 8:00 PM ET, ESPN2       

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – With its 73-72 over Seattle tonight, the Minnesota Lynx finished off  the Storm two games to one to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the second consecutive season. The Lynx will face off with the Los Angeles Sparks, who advanced after beating the San Antonio Silver Stars on Saturday to finish a two-game sweep. Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals begins this Thursday, October 4 at 7 p.m. at Target Center.

The entire Western Conference Finals schedule is below:

• Game 1: Sparks at Lynx, 7 p.m. CT, ESPN2
• Game 2: Lynx at Sparks, 2:30 p.m. CT, ABC
• Game 3: Sparks at Lynx, 7 p.m. CT, ESPN2

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL – On Tuesday, September 18, the Minnesota Lynx will visit the White House and President Barack Obama in recognition of the team’s 2011 WNBA Championship. The President will honor the team’s memorable 2011 season, as well as the efforts of the Lynx to support health and wellness programs through its WNBA FIT and Breast Health Awareness initiatives.

The Lynx had a historic 2011 season, setting a franchise record with 27 wins and outscoring opponents by an average of 7.9 points per game, matching the fifth largest single-season point differential in WNBA history. Minnesota went 7-1 in the postseason, including sweeping the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA Finals to win the team’s first championship in franchise history. Lynx guard and Olympian Seimone Augustus was named the 2012 WNBA Finals MVP for her play against Atlanta in the Finals, averaging 24.7 points per game in the series, including scoring a single-game franchise postseason high 36 points in Game 2.