NEW YORK (AP) — Betnijah Laney-Hamilton scored 18 points in his return to the starting lineup and in New York Freedom beat the Seattle Storm 77-70 Thursday night.
Laney-Hamilton returned from a right knee injury on Aug. 26 that sidelined her for about six weeks following surgery.
Sabrina Ionescu added 17 points and Jonquel Jones he had 15 for Liberty (28-6).
With Liberty trailing 57-56 late in the third quarter, Laney-Hamilton went on a 12-0 run that spanned the final two periods. She scored seven points and had two assists during that stretch.
Breanna Stewart, who missed her first eight shots from the field, scored her first basket of the game during that stretch and finished it off with a three-pointer. She scored 13 of her 14 points in the second half.
Seattle couldn’t get back to seven points the rest of the way.
The win moved Liberty one step closer to the top spot in the WNBA playoffs. New York has a 3 1/2 game lead over Connecticut And Minnesota with six games remaining. Seattle (20-14) is trailing Las Vegas by 1 1/2 games for the No. 4 seed.
The Liberty will next face Las Vegas at home on Sunday in a rematch of the WNBA Finals.
Skylar Diggins-Smith scored 21 points and Gabby Williams added 17 for the Storm.
New York led 40-36 at halftime thanks to a strong first 20 minutes from Ionescu, Jones and Laney-Hamilton. Stewart scored just one point at halftime. Williams and Diggins-Smith each scored 10 for Seattle.
The Liberty attracted another large crowd of celebrities, including Jason Sudeikis, Flavor Flav And Dwyane Wade.
