NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart scored 34 points and Sabrina Ionescu had 21 to help the New York Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces 87-77 on Sunday in the first game of their semifinal series.
Jonquel Jones added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Liberty. The second best-of-5 match will take place Tuesday night in New York.
Kelsey Plum scored 24 points and A’ja Wilson added 21 for the Aces.
It was a rematch of last season’s WNBA Finals that the Aces won in four games, including the championship game in New York. The Liberty said they had a scar from that loss and used it as motivation throughout the season. New York had the best record in the league and earned the first playoff spot.
Last season, the Aces were the No. 1 seed, so New York had to go there for the first two games of the Finals. The Liberty went home 0-2 and could never recover.
New York came out strong behind Stewart and led 28-21 after one quarter. Las Vegas closed to 37-34 with 4:11 left in the half before New York finished the second quarter on an 11-4 run to go up 10 at the break.
Stewart, who had 20 points in the first 20 minutes, had six during that spurt. She made eight of her 10 shots in the first half.
The Liberty scored the first five points of the third quarter and the lead grew to 62-44 on a 3-pointer from Stewart. After a timeout, the Aces scored the next 12 points to get within six. Courtney Vandersloot finally ended the drought for New York with a layup that sparked a run to restore a nine-point advantage late in the third.
Las Vegas trailed and trailed only 75-67 until Ionescu scored a 3-pointer with 7:34 left and quickly turned to Spike Lee, who was sitting courtside and wearing his jersey .
During the Game 2 win over Atlanta, the basketball superfan gave a high-five to the Liberty guard that she said made her feel like “New York had been injected into my veins.”
Ninety seconds later, she hit another 3, sending the sold-out crowd into a frenzy.
Las Vegas couldn’t get closer than eight hours the rest of the way.
This is the first time in the history of the league that the participants of the previous season’s final meet in the semi-final. The league changed its playoff format in 2016, which allowed this to happen, with the top eight teams making the playoffs, regardless of their conference affiliation. Minnesota faced Los Angeles in the 2018 first round after both teams made the WNBA Finals the previous two years.
___
