DETROIT (AP) – The New York Liberty went downtown for a road win.

The Liberty tied a franchise playoff record with nine 3-pointers Friday night in a 75-62 victory over the Detroit Shock in Game 1 of the opening round of the WNBA playoffs.

“We just did a nice job of execution tonight,” said Elena Baranova, who led New York with 17 points. “It’s not just me that is making shots – it’s Becky Hammon and Crystal Robinson and Shameka Christon – everyone on our team can shoot.”

New York finished 9-of-16 from 3-point range.

The loss means the defending champions will have to win Sunday and Tuesday in New York to avoid being eliminated in the best-of-three series.

“I think our team is embarrassed by what happened tonight,” Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said. “We did not get the effort we expected, and that was disturbing. We knew we were going to have to win road games to win the East this year – now we will have to do it twice in one series.”

The game was played at Joe Louis Arena, home of the NHL’s Red Wings, because of a scheduling conflict at the Palace of Auburn Hills. It was the fourth arena the teams have played in this season, joining the Palace, Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. The Liberty had to have a second home building because of the Republican convention being held in Madison Square Garden.

“I don’t think that’s a big deal,” New York coach Pat Coyle said of the different venues. “A basketball court is a basketball court – once the game starts, you don’t care where it is.”

Detroit was without Olympian Swin Cash, who will miss the postseason after tearing a knee ligament on Sept. 11 in Phoenix.

Robinson added 15 points and Hammon had 13 for New York.

“I think we probably should have mixed up our defense in the second half and given them a different look,” Detroit’s Deanna Nolan said. “They hit all those 3s down the stretch and it just killed us.”

Nolan led the Shock with 20 points and Cheryl Ford had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Olympian Ruth Riley scored just eight points on 3-of-9 shooting.

“I think we got lucky,” Coyle said. “We hit a lot of shots and they missed a lot. Ruth Riley is a great offensive player. We weren’t even thinking about stopping her – we just wanted to make things tough on her.”

New York led 38-33 at halftime and expanded the margin to 44-36 early in the second half.

The Shock rallied, but a three-point play by Robinson and a 3 by Baranova put New York up 53-43 with 11:30 to go.

Along with the outside shooting, the smaller Liberty also got 19 second-chance points to just eight for Detroit.

“They are a very physical team, and we’ve only got one true inside player because of injuries,” Baranova said. “That really hurt us in the regular season, but tonight we decided to attack them with what we had and see what happened.”

AP-ES-09-24-04 2241EDT