The New York Liberty bounced back from a surprising loss. game 1 In the WNBA Finals, they held off a late rally from the Minnesota Lynx to win 80-66 and even took the series 1-1 on Sunday.
Top-seeded Liberty, seeking the franchise’s first title, was led by two-time MVP Brianna Stewart (21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, a WNBA Finals single-game record seven steals), while forward Betnija Rainey-Hamilton added a season-high. . 20 points.
Former No. 1 pick Sabrina Ionescu, who struggled from the field in Game 1, got off to a hot start on Sunday, scoring 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting to lead Liberty to a 31-21 lead after the first quarter. . She finished the game with 15 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Despite Minnesota’s efforts to close the gap to within six points after Natisha Hiedeman’s 3-pointer with 7:16 left in the second, New York responded with a 10-0 run to strengthen its control of the game. Liberty led by as many as 17 points before going into halftime with a 49-39 advantage.
The Lynx continued to fight in the second half, with forward Alanna Smith sparking a third quarter rally that cut the deficit to four points. But Stewart scored four points and got a huge block to cap off the third to help Liberty stifle Minnesota’s offense.
The Lynx entered the fourth quarter looking for even more late-game heroics, led by Game 1 hero Courtney Williams and 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier, cutting the lead to 66-64 with 5:36 left in the game.
But New York shut the door on Minnesota’s comeback hopes, closing the game on a 14-2 run to seal the win in front of a record crowd of 18,040 at Barclays Center.
“I mean, I’d like to come back here on Sunday and change the narrative a little bit,” Stewart told ABC after the game.
“We are not panicking. We keep playing together and playing hard. “We know a lot of what happened today, a lot of what happened in the last game, but we continued to play with resilience.”
The Lynx stunned Liberty in Game 1 after falling behind by 15 points with five minutes left in the game. Lynx star Courtney Williams’ four-point play with 5.5 seconds left gave the Lynx their first lead of the game from as many as 18 points down.
As the clock expired in Game 1, Stewart was fouled under the basket and Liberty was awarded two free throws. However, she made the first and missed the second to force overtime.
Collier led the Lynx with a team-high 16 points, while Williams added 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds in the loss.
Game 3 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for Wednesday, when the series moves to the Target Center in Minneapolis, where the Lynx will continue their quest to win a record fifth WNBA championship.
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