NEW YORK – Sabrina Ionescu eagerly pumped her fist on her way out of New York’s Liberty duel on Tuesday night, just moments before Barclays Center erupted on a second overturned call in favor of the home team.

Ionescu, whose Liberty team was leading by just one possession, had redirected the short inbound bounce pass so far that Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum, covered by Leonie Fiebich, could not contain it. The officials initially gave the ball to New York, giving the Aces another chance to tie the game with 10.5 seconds left, but Ionescu and Fiebich immediately twirled their fingers on the Liberty bench.

“When Leo tells me to challenge, I challenge,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “Leo never lies.”

Ionescu secured Liberty’s inbounds pass, picked up a foul when she fell into the lap of Carmelo Anthony on the sideline, and knocked down both free throws to bring the game back to two possessions. It was the final points of a personal 7-0 run that gave the Liberty enough breathing room after a furious comeback by the Aces to win Game 2 of their semifinal series at Barclays Center 88-84.

She remained poised and playful at the postgame podium, chastising her head coach for not listening to her calls for challenges while also delivering a coach-like opening statement to put her impressive performance in perspective.

“Being 2-0 up is great, but we haven’t won anything yet,” Ionescu said. “I think everyone knows that. We did what we were supposed to do, which was protect the home field (and) win two home games. But it’s not like we pat ourselves on the back and celebrate and talk about how lucky we are. That’s not what we came for.”

That New York is heading toward a great opportunity, a return to the WNBA Finals and a shot at its ultimate goal of the franchise’s first championship rests on Ionescu’s shoulders. She led the Liberty as an MVP candidate all season and took over late in Game 2 to finish with 24 points on 50% shooting, nine rebounds and five assists while posting the second-highest plus-minus of anyone at plus-7 player was on the field. Eleven of those points came in the fourth quarter and seven in the final 1:45.

“My teammates keep pouring into me,” Ionescu said. “And you know, they need me at this moment. They know I’m kind of made for this.”

Brondello went to Ionescu after a timeout as reigning MVP A’ja Wilson cut the game to two with 5:23 left. It was the closest game since the final two minutes of the first half, when Ionescu capped another 9-0 Liberty run with deafening three-pointers. At halftime, New York turned a three-point deficit into a six-point lead.

Ionescu delivered a tough performance to get back into the swing of things before the Aces got within 77-76 with 2:36 left. The Liberty offense stagnated and the shooters threw themselves unnecessarily on the transition throws. Ionescu dismissed the claim that the team wasn’t always balanced, but they stuck together.

“It’s almost like we’ve already seen it, like we’ve gotten through it as a team,” Ionescu said. “Our group has been through all these ups and downs together, and so it’s like we understand what we have to do to get through it.”

She hit game one superstar Breanna Stewart with a deft baseline pass, deflected a floater on the next possession off a pass from Courtney Vandersloot and made another basket off an assist from Jonquel Jones.

“In the big moment, she really stands out,” Jones said. “She doesn’t shy away from the moments and the confidence that she has in herself and the confidence that we as teammates have in her to go out and achieve big things.”

Even when the Aces responded, as they did down the stretch, Ionescu shot back every time.

“We got separated from Sabrina,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said. “We know this is taboo.”

This Liberty’s superteam started with Ionescu, the franchise’s first-ever No. 1 draft pick. She injured her ankle in her third game and missed the remainder of her rookie season in 2020. She said she played in pain her sophomore year even though she shouldn’t have. Add to that a hip injury, and until this season, the fifth-year guard had never gone into an offseason without rehab.

“I think you can see the result this year, just the growth that I’ve had from just having a healthy offseason,” Ionescu said on the morning of Game 2.

She is averaging 22.5 points against the Aces in this series, an increase from her season average (18.2) and a significant increase from the 9.8 points she scored against the Aces in the 2023 Finals. She was a defensive player then, but on Tuesday she stood strong against the Aces’ guard trio and added a block to her stats.

Her improvement in the midrange and at the basket gave the Liberty a 44-24 team lead, prompting Hammon to berate her team for allowing New York an “obscene” amount of layups – akin to a “clinic.” Particularly problematic was the pick-and-roll play that Ionescu ran with Stewart and Jones.

“I think we can handle it better,” Hammon said. “Besides, are you going to take them out completely? Probably not. But can we just hold back – we have to at least make it look like a C-plus. Let’s get a C-plus when it comes to protecting them.”

Teams that win the first two games of a best-of-five series are 18-0 in WNBA history. Ionescu’s fellow point guard Chelsea Gray joked that she loves being in the history books, a reminder that there is a first for everything.

Ionescu, Fiebich and Brondello would rather not question that.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Brondello said. “We did what we were supposed to do. We protected the home court. Now we want to go to Vegas. You know, we play well away from home and they play well at home too. That’s our whole focus now and we’re just going to go with it.