Irked Liberty moving past frustrating reset controversy ahead of do-or-die Game 3

Liberty coach Chris DeMarco on Friday backed Breanna Stewart after the WNBA pool report on the controversial Game 2 ending led some to question the New York star’s account of the events.Speaking for the first time since Wednesday’s 101-98 loss, DeMarco said “it’s definitely frustrating” how the situation played out over the past 48 hours.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Madeline Kenney about all things Liberty and WNBA.

“Breanna Stewart is the model citizen for the game of basketball,” DeMarco said at shootaround ahead of the Liberty’s win-or-go-home Game 3.“She plays the game the right way, she always has… She’s just exactly what you want out of a basketball player.

Again, she’s not trying to bait referees.She’s always been honest so yeah, it’s definitely frustrating.

She plays the game the right way and you never want somebody to be questioned.”With the Liberty on the brink of elimination, Stewart didn’t want to spend too much time Friday morning rehashing the reset timeout snafu. She did, however, say it was “really disappointing” how officials discredited her initial statement that she was told New York had no remaining timeouts.“You want to have respect between players and refs and players and league and all these things and in order to have respect, you need to build trust and building trust comes with being honest,” Stewart said.“And putting me in a position to question my integrity is really disappointing.

And I know who I am and what I stand for and what I heard and that’s that.And I’m going to continue to move on.”Stewart said she received a text from head of WNBA league operations Bethany Donaphin, but declined to get into specifics.The Liberty have been heavily criticized for not using their reset timeout in the final seconds of Wednesday’s overtime loss.With Angel Reese on the free throw line with 4.3 seconds left in a one-possession game...