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Pauline Astier inbounded the ball to a moving Sabrina Ionescu Wednesday. She took one dribble into the corner in front of the Liberty’s bench before draining a tough 3-pointer over Sky forward Azura Stevens with 56 seconds left in the fourth.
Jonquel Jones looked at Ionescu in astonishment.
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tRY IT NOW“God dammit, you a dog, man,” Jones recalled saying. “That was amazing.”
That 3-pointer jump-started the Liberty’s 10-1 run over the final minute, propelling New York to a 95-94 win against the Chicago Sky at Barclays Center and ensuring the Liberty enter the All-Star break on a good note.
Ionescu scored nine of her team-high 29 points in that final minute.
“She literally willed us and carried us at the end,” Breanna Stewart said of her partner in crime, Ionescu. “She wanted to do anything she could to kind of get the win and it was great to have Barclays really going nuts again.”
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The Liberty trailed by eight with 58 seconds left. They knew they had to act fast, and Ionescu understood her assignment.
She was aided by solid screens set by her teammates. New York upped its aggression on defense, too. The combination aided in the Liberty’s success.
“I just saw the basket,” said Ionescu, who went 3-for-4 from deep in the fourth. “I felt like I was kind of having my 3-point shootout in game.”
The Liberty then forced the Sky into a 24-second shot clock violation with 31 seconds left. Astier secured a rebound from a missed Courtney Vandersloot free throw that turned into an Ionescu and-1 layup to tie the game with 15.1 seconds left.
Vandersloot found Kamilla Cardoso, who missed under pressure near the rim. Jones secured the rebound and was fouled with 3.4 seconds left.
Jones hit the first free throw, but missed the second one.
It didn’t matter.
Vandersloot’s half-court heave was off the mark.
For the second consecutive game, the Liberty overcame a 12-point deficit, executed well down the stretch, made key defensive stops and earned the win.
“It builds character,” coach Chris DeMarco said. “If it’s a late game and you’re down, we have it in us to come back and to execute and get stops when we need to. And again, just a ton of confidence in this team. And Chicago is a good team, they’re very good, they have vets, they have scoring, they’ve lost a lot of close games. … We knew it was going to be tough, and we just stuck with it.”
New York captured back-to-back wins for the first time in more than a month, behind Ionescu’s hot hand, another Jonquel Jones double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Stewart’s (20 points, nine rebounds) steadiness.
Ionescu’s late-game heroics came two days after her overtime takeover in Dallas when she scored 12 points in overtime to help the Liberty end a four-game losing streak.
Jones said she’s never surprised by Ionescu’s hot shooting.
“But amazed, yes,” Jones said. “Definitely amazing.”
Ionescu had struggled to find her flow after missing most of the first five weeks of the season with injuries. But she’s looked more like herself as of late. She’s scored 20 or more points in four of the past five games, averaging 23 points over this stretch.
Ionescu won’t be an All-Star for the first time since 2021. But the past two games were just what the Liberty needed to enter this midseason break in the schedule with some positive vibes.
“For me personally, it was a rough first couple months of the season, especially being out with injury,” she said. “It’ll be nice knowing I kind of have a clean slate into this All-Star break to start the second half of the season feeling really good, strong and ready to make a really good push.”
