– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — The New York Liberty giveth, then the New York Liberty taketh away.
Leonie Fiebich was almost perfect in her WNBA Playoffs debut, scoring a career-high 21 points as the top-seeded Liberty led from wire-to-wire in a comprehensive 83-69 victory over the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 of the teams’ best-of-three first-round series inside Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon. Breanna Stewart had 20 points and 11 rebounds for New York, who opened a double-digit lead at the 3:39 mark of the first quarter and never saw the lead dip below 10 for the rest of the game.
In a rematch from Thursday’s regular-season finale, when the Dream defeated New York to clinch the eighth and final playoff spot in the playoffs, New York made its first six shots from the field and seven of its first eight attempts, and after Sabrina Ionescu’s three with just over 90 seconds remaining in the first ended that hot-shooting stretch, the Liberty were up 27-9.
Fiebich, who’s finishing up her first year in the WNBA after initially being drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2020 draft, was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in the first half — two three-pointers in the first and three makes from inside the arc in the second — on her way to scoring 15 points in the first 20 minutes. Ionescu had 14 first-half points, as New York’s starting backcourt (29) almost outscored the Dream (30) going into halftime as New York opened up an 18-point lead.
Fiebich finished the game 7-for-8 from the floor while knocking down all four of her three-point attempts.
Rhyne Howard led the Dream with 14 points while former Liberty great Tina Charles was the only other Atlanta player who scored in double figures, with 12.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Scotty Rausenberger. 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 23 pictures in total.
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