Breanna Stewart makes her move to the basket during the Liberty’s victory over her former Seattle teammates Saturday in Brooklyn. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty
Winners of three straight and seven of their last eight contests overall, the New York Liberty will try to continue their roll entering the annual All-Star break when they visit the slumping Indiana Fever Wednesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
All-Star captain and Most Valuable Player front-runner Breanna Stewart poured in 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds and fellow All-Star Sabrina Ionescu added 20 points and eight assists Saturday as New York held off Seattle, 80-76, in front of 6,789 fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center.
“We don’t expect anything to be easy,” said Stewart. “We know that everybody is going to give us their best shot.”
Courtney Vandersloot, also selected by Stewart to represent her squad in Saturday’s All-Star Game in Las Vegas, and Jonquel Jones added nine points apiece for the Liberty (13-4), who remained percentage points ahead of Connecticut (14-5) for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
The narrow win didn’t come easy against Stewart’s former teammates, who lost WNBA leading scorer Jewell Loyd to an ankle sprain early in the fourth quarter.
Loyd, who put up 14 points on 3-of-17 shooting, didn’t return to action and the Liberty took the lead for good on Ionescu’s 3-pointer with 5:39 left, snapping a 64-64 deadlock.
Ionescu drained another 3-ball on New York’s ensuing trip and Stewart’s shot from beyond the arc with just under four minutes remaining gave the Liberty a 73-68 cushion.
Vandersloot followed with a basket and Ionescu’s 24-footer 60 seconds later gave New York its biggest lead, 78-68.
But the Storm (4-14) would not be quelled, answering with an 8-0…
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