Liberty sharp-shooter Sabrina Ionescu roars with delight after drilling one of her seven 3-pointers in Sunday’s win over Las Vegas in Brooklyn. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty
Round Two of the battle of the WNBA’s “Super Teams” went to New York last Sunday afternoon in front of a record-setting crowd of 11,418 Liberty faithful.
And the defending league champions and owners of the best record in the sport didn’t like it one bit.
“That’s a good old-fashioned ass-whooping,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon conceded following New York’s 99-61 dismantling of her team in front of the most fans ever to take in a Liberty game since the franchise relocated to Downtown Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
The Aces (24-3), who downed New York 98-81 in the initial showdown in Vegas on June 29, entered the rematch on an eight-game winning streak, one shy of their season high.
But the Liberty used a 30-9 third quarter and a team record-tying 17 3-pointers, six of which were buried by All-Star 3-Point Shootout champion Sabrina Ionescu, to flush the Aces’ hopes of going up 2-0 in the regular-season series.
“We just proved to ourselves what we’re able to do,” said Ionescu, who led the way with 31 points, seven assists and six rebounds as New York (21-6) completed its fifth four-game winning streak of the campaign.
“We’ve set the level of how we need to play every single game in order to be at our best,” she added.
Reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Month Breanna Stewart scored 18 of her 23 points in the second half, Jonquel Jones posted her sixth double-double in the last seven games with 12 points and 14 boards and Betnijah Laney added 13 points and nine rebounds for New York.
“This is the best team in the WNBA right now and they were coming onto our home floor. They kicked our butts the last time we saw them, so there’s an extra level of focus that it takes,” said Liberty point guard Courtney Vandersloot after putting up 10 points…
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