New York Liberty down Dallas Wings 79-71 to win eighth straight and extend league-best record
By Sam Joseph, CNN
(CNN) — The New York Liberty solidified their spot at the top of the WNBA standings with a 79-71 home win over the Dallas Wings at the Barclays Center on Thursday.
The result made it eight victories in a row for the Liberty, who currently sit atop the Eastern Conference with a league-best 25-4 record, the team’s best start through 29 games in franchise history.
Two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart led the team in scoring with a joint game-high 19 points, though it was not an efficient shooting night for the recent Olympic champion, going 5-for-18 from the field and 0-for-3 from three-point range but making nine free throws. She also posted seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.
New York was without three-time All-Star Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton due to injuries but still managed to find a way to grind out the victory. The Liberty only shot 35.1% from the field as a team but still had four players score in double figures.
“It was not a very pretty game,” said head coach Sandy Brondello. “We didn’t shoot the ball well and we were down a few key players, but we found a way to win and I think that shows a lot about a team.”
Brondello’s team jumped to a 9-3 lead after six points in the opening four minutes from Stewart, but the Wings rallied to end the first quarter with a 17-14 advantage. The Liberty took the lead in the second quarter and entered halftime with a three point advantage in a game that remained close throughout.
New York opened the second half with an 7-0 run that was punctuated by a dominant offensive rebound and putback bucket from Kayla Thornton.
Dallas fought back to stay in the contest and took a 56-55 lead with 6:47 left in the game after an Arike Ogunbowale three-point play, as the two teams stayed neck-and-neck throughout the final quarter, but the Liberty pulled away after a late 9-2 run.
It was a morale boosting win for New York, which became the first team to clinch a postseason berth on Saturday.
“Sometimes, you have to win ugly,” said Brondello. “We stayed together and I think that shows the chemistry of this team, that even with adversity and not playing pretty, there was no finger pointing and it’s more like ‘Okay, let’s just do it now and find a way.’
“They’re always trying to lift each other up, pat each other on the back, encourage each other. As long as we have that, we’re in a good spot.”
German rookie Leonie Fiebich scored a career-high 16 points for the Liberty while Thornton also added 16. Jonquel Jones had 13 points and 13 rebounds to record her 11th double-double of the season and the 90th of her career, becoming the eighth player in league history to reach the mark.
Ogunbowale – who is third in the league in points per game – scored 19 for Dallas, with Natasha Howard adding 16 while having seven of the team’s 14 turnovers and fouling out of the game.
The defeat moves the Wings to 6-22, tied for the worst record in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks and Washington Mystics.
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