Sun can’t find a way to get past Liberty yet

Connecticut’s Ty Harris drives to the basket during the game in Tuesday night’s WNBA in Brooklyn against New York.  (Photo by Evan Yu/NBAE via Getty Images)

League MVP Breanna Stewart was in street clothes on the bench for the New York Liberty but that was OK because the Liberty had first-time Olympian Sabrina Ionescu on the floor against the Connecticut Sun Tuesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Ionescu scored a game-high 30 points and sank six-of-11 shots from three-point range to lead New York to an 82-74 victory over the Sun. The Liberty have now won seven straight regular season games against Connecticut, including three victories this season. The Sun have lost 10 of their last 11 games against the Liberty.

After battling to tie the game at 63-63 after three quarters, New York (21-4) turned up the heat on the Sun in the fourth quarter.

Connecticut sank just 2-of-12 shots from the floor in the fourth quarter, including 1-of-6 from three-point range. In the game, Connecticut shot just 11 percent from three-point range, 2-of-18.

Brionna Jones led Connecticut with 17 points, five rebounds, one assist, a season-high three steals and one block in 35 minutes of action. Alyssa Thomas added 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block in 23 minutes of play. She didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

The Sun (18-6) had their chances in the fourth quarter. DiJonai Carrington had steals on back-to-back possessions to help Connecticut cut an eight-point lead to four, 73-69, with 4:14 remaining only to see Jonquel Jones complete a three-point play to boost the lead back to seven, 76-69.

Ty Harris sank a three-pointer from the corner with 3:58 to cut the lead to four, 76-72 but the Sun didn’t sink a field goal for the remainder of the game thanks to multiple turnovers.

“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. They can’t make a lot of mistakes against them. They make you pay for it. And when we did make mistakes, they did make us pay. To be outscored 33-16 at three-point line makes it really, really tough.

“It puts a lot of pressure on our offense to be perfect. And that is what good teams do. And New York was the better team,” White said.

White said Thomas wanted to play but she was thinking of the big picture and the upcoming Olympic Games where Thomas will be playing on the U.S. team for the first time.

“She’s got pretty big event coming up,” White said. “It was a pretty physical ball game. And we’re trying to do right by her.

“We’ve got to build depth on our team for what we want to do the second half of the season. I thought we gave ourselves chances. We just,couldn’t quite get over the hump,” she said.

Carrington added 13 points, six rebounds, two assists and a career-high five steals in 30 minutes. Ty Harris rounded out the Sun’s double-figure scorers with 11 points, one rebound, four assists and one steal in 31 minutes of play.

It was the final game for both teams — the top two teams in the WNBA — before the Olympic break. The Sun return to action on Friday, August 16 at Fallas at 9:30 p.m., EST. 

The Liberty opened the contest on an 11-2 run forcing the Sun into a timeout with 7:43 remaining in the first quarter. Connecticut outscored New York, 21-17, the rest of the way to cut the deficit to five, 28-23, heading into the second period. The Sun made it a one possession game at the half, 45-43. Thomas had 12 points and seven rebounds at the break, while Brionna Jones added 11 first half points.

Carrington scored seven of her 13 points in the third quarter as the Sun battled to tie the game at 63-63 after three quarters.

New York went on a quick 5-0 run to begin the fourth, to take a 68-63 lead with 8:47 to go in the game. The Sun were held without a field goal until the 4:44 mark in the final quarter, when Carrington came up with her fourth steal of the night and converted a break-away lay-up to cut the Liberty’s advantage to four, 73-69.

The Sun forced the Liberty into 21 turnovers in the game, scoring 21 points off those mistakes. Connecticut committed 14 turnovers on the night, resulting in 16 points for New York.

Ionescu is just the third New York player (Tina Charles (twice) and Cappie Pondexter) as the only New York Liberty players to score 30 points or more against the Connecticut Sun in a regular season game.

“Her change of speed is as good as anybody in the game, not just in our league, in the game,” White said. “Her ability to use screens at the right angles to put you under duress her release is so quick and she’s become a better finisher going to the rim and you can tell that she’s put in the work.

“She’s not even the Sabrina of last season and that’s just a credit to her and the work that she’s continued to put in to make herself a player that you have to guard at all three levels and not even taken into consideration the fact that she’s a terrific facilitator as well,” White said.