Not Sun Yet: Liberty Tie Semifinal Series
It takes (Game) 2 to make a thing go right.
The New York Liberty provided the finest favor for Breanna Stewart's MVP party, tying up their best-of-five WNBA semifinal series with the Connecticut Sun at a game apiece with an 84-77 victory on Tuesday night at Barclays Center.
Betnijah Laney (20 points) and Courtney Vandersloot (19) united for 29 points in the second half, aided by double-doubles for Stewart (11 points, 13 rebounds) and Jonquel Jones (12 rebounds, 11 points). Despite only one triple, Sabrina Ionescu made the most of a bruising effort to score 21 points, doing most of her damage from the foul line (10-of-10, tying a Liberty record set by Sugar Rodgers in 2015) and the paint en route to leading New York in scoring.
Tiffany Hayes fell just short of her career-best in scoring, posting 30 points in defeat. Despite a 2-of-13 effort from the field, Stewart's fellow MVP competitor Alyssa Thomas fell just short of a triple-double with 10 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds. Thomas was the runner-up to Stewart in the weighted tally, as the two, along with third-place finisher A'ja Wilson of Las Vegas, were separated by a mere 13 points.
Connecticut jumped out to an early 22-16 lead, sustained by a dozen period points from Hayes alone. The lead ballooned to as high as a dozen in the early stages of the second period before the Liberty regrouped.
Brandon Todd, NY Liberty
The hosting Liberty fought their way back in through a physically imposing performance from Ionescu, whose continued trips to the foul line got defensive standout and former teammate Rebecca Allen in foul trouble. Over the final seven minutes of the first half, the Liberty embarked on a 20-12 run to close the halftime deficit to one. With the exception of a three-pointer each for Ionescu and Laney, all the points earned in that span came from either the foul line or no further than seven feet from the basket.
Such penetration allowed the Liberty to open things up from the outside in the second half: they sank 7-of-12 three-pointers over the final 20 minutes after starting 3-of-14, starting to resemble the deep-shooting group that gained WNBA history on several occasions earlier this season. A 13-5 run over the first three minutes of the fourth gave New York a permanent lead as the stretch was bookended by triples from Vandersloot and Stewart. In hardwood serendipity, each assisted on the other's fateful three.
Though Connecticut lingered, that final run proved to be enough material to pave the path to a win.
With the series reduced to a de facto best-of-three, the Liberty and Sun will do battle in a crucial third game on Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).
