NEW YORK — The Connecticut Sun fought back into the game after falling behind early to the New York Liberty Tuesday at Barclays Center. Things were tied going into the fourth quarter.
However, a silky 3-pointer from Sabrina Ionescu followed by a layup from Kennedy Burke in the opening minute of the final frame shifted the momentum back to where it had been for the majority of the night — with the Liberty.
Ionescu’s 30-point performance – including six rebounds and five assists – paced New York’s 84-72 win over the Sun in their last game before the Olympic break. The Liberty now hold a 3-0 series lead and have a seven-game regular season win streak against Connecticut.
“Obviously disappointed. I felt like our energy wasn’t there to start and then we clawed our way back into it,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “We had our moments, but you can’t make a lot of mistakes against this team. They make you pay for it.”
The Sun were forced to call a timeout 2:17 into the first quarter after the Liberty got out to a 11-2 start with nine of those points coming from beyond the arc. New York’s defense was swarming early, causing Sun turnovers and cutting off both passing and shooting lanes.
While they only trailed by three at the end of the second quarter, the Sun looked disjointed for most of the first half. There were spurts of rhythm – highlighted in Brionna Jones and Alyssa Thomas’ play – but Connecticut struggled to find real consistency against the Liberty’s speed.
“It was some key turnovers that we had early and late and I think it just gave them momentum – they got the crowd into it,” said Jones who had a team-high 17 points. “We still had chances. We were still in the game. We still could’ve executed some offense better.”
Rachel Banham went scoreless in the first half following her historic 24-point performance in Sunday’s 96-69 win over the Phoenix Mercury at Mohegan Sun Arena. Connecticut needed more from its bench in the first half as 36 of its 42 points came from the starters.
It’s been a familiar theme for the Sun this season. Connecticut’s starters are averaging 10+ points each per game and have made up 81.6% of the team’s scoring this year.
The Liberty led 45-42 at the half and, despite a push from the Sun in the third quarter, were able to pull away in the fourth.
“Definitely didn’t help ourselves,” Jones said.
Notably, Thomas did not see any action in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes. The Sun were in reach and could have used one of their best players, but White opted to give Thomas some rest ahead of the Olympics in which the forward will represent Team USA for women’s basketball.
“It was more thinking big picture, thinking the long game,” White said. “She’s got a pretty big event coming up. It was a pretty physical ball game and just trying to do right certainly by her, but also we’ve got to build depth on our team for what we want to do in the second half of the season.”
New York’s Ionescu and Breanna Stewart will join Thomas on the 2024 USA Basketball Women’s Olympic Team for the Paris Games. Team USA will open with group play against Japan on July 29.
The Liberty outscored the Sun 19-11 in the final 10 minutes to secure the victory and go into the break on a four-game winning streak. The Sun remain in second place behind the Liberty with a 18-6 record.
