Liberty lament more early game struggles as stars late efforts not enough
MONTREAL — Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart’s desperation was evident Sunday.The tag team did its best to will the Liberty to a win a day after New York’s second-half rally fell short in Minneapolis.Stewart scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half.Ionescu recorded 12 of her team-high 28 points in the fourth quarter.
Together, they helped the fatigued Liberty erase the Toronto Tempo’s 15-point lead.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Madeline Kenney about all things Liberty and WNBA.
New York played with heart and grit, but it ultimately wasn’t enough as the Tempo won 93-91.“We had a great group out there that played as hard as they could, tried to get stops, push the ball in transition, but it’s a matter of will and want,” Ionescu said.“And I’d say everyone that stepped out in that second half especially, played with a lot of assertiveness and try to do everything you could to get a win.”It was a tough break for the Liberty, who lately have made a habit of falling into double-digit holes.The Liberty have trailed by 13-plus points in five of their past seven games, going 0-5 in those situations.Stewart had no answer for why the Liberty keep finding themselves in disadvantageous situations.The Liberty are 5-6 in clutch games, tied for 10th out of 15 teams.The Liberty pointed to a bizarre sequence Sunday — in which Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected for throwing a teammate’s shoe that accidentally hit Marina Mabrey — as stifling their momentum.But rookie Pauline Astier believes the Liberty need to “wake up earlier” and take control sooner.
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