East-leading Liberty return to Barclays

After giving up a season-high 98 points during their loss at WNBA-leading Las Vegas last Thursday, the New York Liberty put the clamps down on Seattle for Breanna Stewart’s second visit to her former home.

Stewart scored 20 points, grabbed eight rebounds, handed out six assists and picked up five of New York’s season-high 16 steals Sunday as the Liberty cruised to an 81-66 victory over the Storm in front of a sellout crowd of 9,110 at Climate Pledge Arena.

“We found a way. We were a better defensive team today than we were (Thursday),” said Liberty coach Sandy Brondello, whose unit surrendered a season-low point total.

Billed as a battle of the league’s “Superteams”, the Liberty’s visit to Sin City didn’t go as planned. They suffered a 17-point setback to the Aces that left them as the WNBA’s clear No. 2 despite their post atop the Eastern Conference.

New York (11-4) was aching to get back in the win column after having its season high-tying four-game winning streak snapped as well.

But it needed to put its foot down early against Stewart’s ex-teammates.

The Liberty came flying out with a 7-0 burst, capped by Sabrina Ionescu’s 3-pointer, and didn’t come close to trailing thereafter, finishing off the opening quarter with a 26-14 cushion.

“That was big for us. Bouncing (back) from a loss,” noted future Hall of Fame point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who finished with 18 points, a season-high 13 assists and four steals.

“That was a good first quarter for us. Set the tone early,” she added.

Ionescu put up 13 points and Betnijah Laney added 10 for New York, which spread the wealth by amassing 29 assists on its 33 made baskets.

“I think the way we moved the ball is kind of the standard of what we want to do,” said Stewart, who had less fanfare surrounding her…