Sabrina Ionescu’s game-winner allowed the New York Liberty to end a losing streak in style.
BROOKLYN-Regularly flirting with triple-doubles, Sabrina Ionescu was more than happy to have her weekend defined by a simple “and-one” instead.
The New York Liberty’s franchise face sank an unconventional triple with just over nine seconds remaining in a Saturday showdown with the defending champions, providing the victorious difference in an 83-80 decision over the defending WNBA champion Chicago Sky. Ionescu’s drive down the lane drew both a tie and a foul that led to her winning free throw before a defensive stop on the other end secured the win.
New York (10-17) ended a five-game losing streak with the win, which also allowed them to keep pace in the hunt for the WNBA’s eighth and final playoff slot. They’re currently a game-and-a-half behind Atlanta entering this week’s action.
Candace Parker, Ionescu’s fellow queen of WNBA triple-doubles, paced the Sky with 21 points and 11 rebounds in an effort that fell just short. Parker had a chance to win it at the other hand but strong defense from Michaela Onyenwere caused her potential buzzer-beater to fall short. Onyenwere’s rebound led to an immediate foul that created the final margin.
Duckin’ A
With some special guests in attendance at a packed Barclays Center … namely Vanessa Bryant and her daughters … Ionescu put on a show in the fourth quarter, refusing to let the Liberty relent as the league-leading Sky tried to steal a road victory. As both teams worked through some dreary shooting efforts (uniting to shoot 37 percent from the field in the first half), Ionescu found herself stifled and frustrated by a strong defensive effort from Rebekah Gardner, who came off the bench to earn 16 points, four steals, and three blocks in defeat. The rookie was entrusted with the top defensive duties on Ionescu, who lost five turnovers and shot 7-of-17 from the field.
“She’s a great defender. That whole team is really good on the defensive end,” Ionescu said of Gardner’s efforts. “I think it shows to us the level of excellence we need to hold ourselves to if we have travel issues, anything. There’s no excuses at the end of the day. You just got to come out and play your best.”
Despite Ionescu’s initial struggles, head coach Sandy Brondello had no hesitation in putting the ball in her hands as the seconds dwindled.
“She lives for that moment,” Brondello said. “We made some silly turnovers trying to get the ball back where he should have just played but it was more like she has to be beaten down (until) we get the ball back … I’m really proud of her. She’s so tough minded, she loves those moments. I’m glad that she got rewarded and we got the win.”
Ionescu recovered just in time to help the Liberty keeps its fourth quarter lead, one that expanded to as high as 10 before Chicago embarked on an 18-7 run in the middle stages to set up a back-and-forth finale. Facing a three-point deficit in the final minute, Ionescu’s last five points turned out to be the difference: a pull-up from 15 feet out narrowed the deficit to one before her final heroics came after taking advantage of Parker’s split pair at the foul line.
Ionescu had eight points in the fourth quarter, sinking 3-of-6 from the field, the last coming on her vital drive that drew a foul from Gardner.
“I’m happy (Gardner) forced me right so I just went right,” Ionescu said of the final sequence. “The spacing was great. Coach drew up a good play and I didn’t want to settle for a shot. I just wanted to get the basket.”
Sweet (Former) Home Chicago
One could hardly blame the league-leading Sky (21-7) for venturing through Brooklyn in a semi-fugue state: the team had travel issues following a Friday night victory at home over Dallas and was missing Courtney Vandersloot in concussion protocol. The All-Star’s medical woes had done little to stifle Chicago’s momentum toward a repeat, however, as they came into Brooklyn on a quest to extend a six-game winning streak.
The visitors’ championship prowess was well on display throughout the evening, as the Sky constantly prevented the Liberty from pulling away. Between their ability to linger and to pull down offensive rebounds in key opportunities (11 of their 18 points during the aforementioned late run came through second chance opportunities), things were eerily reminiscent of the Sky’s last visit on June 12, when they overcame a Ionescu triple-double through clutch boards and a Vandersloot triple with less than a second to go to earn an 88-86 victory. It prevented the Liberty from forming a three-game winning streak, one that has continued to prove elusive.
But, if anyone was aware of what Chicago could accomplish, even in a relatively handicapped form, it was newcomer Stef Dolson.
Having previously partaken in Chicago’s championship effort, Dolson kept the Liberty in the game with a 13-point effort mainly accumulated in the third quarter. She was a perfect 4-for-4 in the frame in scoring each of the Liberty’s first nine points before foul trouble forced her to the bench. By then, Natasha Howard (16 points and 10 rebounds in her third double-double in the last five games) was able to pick up the slack in helping the Liberty form a 61-55 advantage after the third quarter. Han Xu also made it to double-figures for the Liberty with 12 points accompanying six rebounds off the bench.
“She was very steady,” Howard noted of her fellow interior threat. “She knew who she had been guarding her if he took advantage of it.”
In addition to Dolson’s revenge, the Liberty also darkened the Sky to the tune of allowing only three successful three-pointers on 25 attempts, including an 0-for-4 effort from sharpshooter Allie Quigley.
Talk About Playoffs?
In perhaps some bizarre timing, the Liberty have sandwiched their dreary five-game losing streak with wins over Sky and Las Vegas Aces, the top two seeds in the current WNBA playoff bracket. A prior attempt to end the streak was the finale of a three-game stretch of “camp days” (games welcoming youths from summer camps, each tipping off prior to 12 p.m. ET), where they fell by a 78-69 final to the Washington Mystics.
New York had jumped out to a 15-2 lead at the onset of Washington D.C. visit on Thursday but was unable to keep pace. A similar story threatened to surface on Saturday, as careless turnovers allowed the Sky to quickly erase an 8-0 advantage in the early going.
But the Liberty reps believe that securing the win after a hot start this time around will pay big dividends as they enter the final stretch toward a second consecutive postseason berth.
“It’s a starting point, you got to start somewhere. That was a big win for us to snap a five game losing streak,” Ionescu declared. “Just seeing a win sometimes is all you need to kind of get a spark and continue to to win games. We have a lot more games left. It’s one at a time. We’re in the spot we need to be and we’re just going to continue to get better. It’s not about stressing out about what seed we are, any of that stuff. We have winnable games coming up. We got to take it one at a time. I think this is the start of, hopefully, continuing to get more wins.”
“We’ve been struggling a little bit not getting wins. But what I’ve really liked about this team is that we’ve stayed together as a team,” Brondello noted. “I’m just saying you just got to hang in there. You just got to grind it out and you got to find some little wins, even when the game is lost. So for them, for us, to win against a really good team, regardless of their back to back, we had to dig deep to win it. I’m just happy, but still got nine games to go. So hopefully, it’ll just give us a little bit of hope.”
Up Next
The Liberty will face the Sky in the latter half of a home-and-home series on Friday night with the action moving to Wintrust Arena (8 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network). It will be the fourth and final meeting between New York and Chicago this season.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
Baseline Sports NY is on Twitter @Baseline_NY
