Cheryl Reeve Bemoans Uneven Whistle For Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier
With their thrilling 80-77 win over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals, the New York Liberty are now one win away from securing their franchise's first-ever WNBA Championship.
All three games of this series have been evenly matched and incredibly exciting. However, there has been no moment more memorable than the cold-blooded three-pointer that Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu scored with one second last on the game clock to give New York a three-point lead.
SABRINA STEP-BACK WINS IT FOR THE LIBERTY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UAsmAyz69U
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 17, 2024
While Game 3 will surely be remembered by Ionescu's iconic shot (and rightfully so), she was struggling for most of the game to that point. New York was actually carried by Breanna Stewart, who finished Game 3 with 30 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
10 of Stewart's points came via the free throw line, as she shot a perfect 10-10 from the stripe during the contest.
This seemed to rub Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve the wrong way, as she suggested that foul calls weren't being evenly dispersed between each team's biggest superstar after Wednesday's game.
"She got fouled," Reeve said of the difference between Stewart's first and second half, per Myles Ehrlick. "She was asserting herself in that way. The game's called differently for Phee than it is for Stewie, for sure... for whatever reason, we have a hard time getting to the foul line in this series."
Cheryl Reeve on Breanna Stewart's 2H difference: "She got fouled. She was asserting herself in that way. The game's called differently for Phee than it is for Stewie, for sure... for whatever reason, we have a hard time getting to the foul line in this series." (Q: @benpickman)
— Myles (@MylesEhrlich) October 17, 2024
Stewart did end up receiving six more free-throw attempts than Collier on Wednesday, However, the Liberty only shot two more free throws as a team than the Lynx.
Regardless of whether there was an uneven whistle, Reeve and her Lynx squad will need to bounce back on Friday if they want to keep their WNBA championship hopes alive.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.