– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — The New York Liberty got everything they wanted from their showdown of a game on Sunday: winning, avoiding going up against the likely league MVP, dominating for long stretches of the game, and losing enough of a grip that there’s surely room for improvement.
Sabrina Ionescu scored seven of her 14 points in the fourth quarter as the Liberty had a 20-point lead at one point before holding on to be the Las Vegas Aces 75-71 inside Barclays Center on Sunday. Last season’s Most Valuable Player, Breanna Stewart, had 21 points for New York, who were playing against the Aces team that was without star forward A’ja Wilson, who injured her right ankle late in Las Vegas’ win on Friday night in Connecticut against the Sun.
“We’re happy that we’re going away with the win, but we were up 20 at one point,” Stewart said. “Make sure whenever you’re on the court, you have a purpose. And this is the defending champs. Whether A’ja is on the court or not, they’re trying to win.”
In the latest matchup between last year’s finalists, the Liberty led 63-43 late in the third quarter before an 18-1 run that continued on into the fourth quarter cut New York’s lead to 64-61. New York went scoreless from 1:39 in the third, when Courtney Vandersloot made the second of two free throws, to 4:52 in the fourth, when Ionescu made a layup to give New York a 66-61 advantage.
Las Vegas scored on its next two possessions, with two Kelsey Plum free throws and a hook shot by Sydney Colson, to cut New York’s lead to one, and Plum’s three-pointer with 2:36 left tied the game at 68. Ionescu followed Plum’s three with a jumper to give New York the lead back, but it found itself trailing for the first time in the second half when Colson made a three with 1:54 remaining for a 71-70 Aces lead.
On the next possession, New York grabbed three offensive rebounds but were not able to score after Stewart uncharacteristically missed both free throws. Las Vegas also came up empty-handed on the ensuing possession, and Ionescu made the Aces pay with a jumper in the lane with 44 seconds remaining as the Liberty reclaimed the lead. The lead was two for Nw York on the Aces’ next-to-last possession, when Jackie Young had her game-tying layup attempt blocked by Stewart before Jonquel Jones was fouled. Jones made both of her free throws to seal the win.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Roberto Carlo. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 28 pictures in total.
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