The early minutes of the New York Liberty’s July 22 game against Indiana Fever showed it wasn’t going to be a repeat of last week’s blowout victory, but the return of Jonquel Jones, who recorded team highs with 18 points and nine rebounds, helped see New York to a 98-84 win over the still-Caitlin-Clark-less Fever on Tuesday night at Barclays Center.
The Liberty were down by four points at halftime, but were able to break away in the fourth quarter. With 5:29 left to play, Sabrina Ionescu took over. She went 1-of-9 from the field through the first three quarters, but scored 10 straight Liberty points to tally 13 in the game. Isabelle Harrison took the reins after that, scoring the next seven points for her team, to record a season-high 13. The two firmly shut the door on Indiana’s hopes of victory as the Liberty won their fourth straight, 98-84.
“I was talking to [Ionescu] before that fourth quarter, just letting her know, she’s going to be kind of the nail in the coffin for them,” Jones said.
Jones didn’t need long before finding her form on her first time back on the court since she was sidelined by an ankle injury last month, and scored the first points of the night with a three. However, the first five minutes of the game were all Indiana’s Natasha Howard and Kelsey Mitchell.
The Fever led 12-10 halfway through the first frame with eight points coming from Howard and four from Mitchell. The Liberty somewhat found an answer and only allowed Howard two more points in the half. Mitchell wasn’t as easy of a solution and led her squad with 29 points on the night from 52% shooting from the field.
New York started to find a rhythm and scored eight straight points to take a 23-16 lead with just 1:11 left in the first quarter. Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull each responded with a triple to end the frame trailing by just one point.
The Liberty notched the first seven points of the second quarter, but the Fever found their own momentum to keep the game a tight battle. Neither team was able to break away, but Indiana had the upper hand, thanks to Mitchell’s 10 points in the span, and went into halftime leading 46-42.
Indiana’s defense was on an entirely different level than last game, which is what stopped New York from repeating that commanding presence.
“I didn’t think we executed our scout very well at both ends of the floor,” said Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello. “We didn’t handle their pressure.”
The Fever started to break away and extended their lead to seven in the final minutes of the third quarter, but that’s when the Liberty started taking control. New York scored nine points to end the frame, with six coming from Breanna Stewart.
New York continued its run into the fourth quarter and extended its lead to 73-67, which forced a timeout by Indiana with 8:48 left to play. The Fever slowed their opponents down slightly right out of the break, but it didn’t take long for the Liberty to take a 79-70 lead, their largest thus far, after a three from Jones.
Jones led the way for New York in her return. Thirteen of her 18 points came in the second half.
“It’s just the gravitational pull that [Jones] brings in,” Brondello said. “She can do everything for us at both ends of the floor, and that’s why we didn’t play our best basketball when she was out. We found ways to try and win as many games as we could, and then you add her back in, you just see the difference, how it helps us with our overall game.”
New York played strong the rest of the way with high production from Ionescu and Harrison to start the second half of the season with a win.
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork.
