NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu set a franchise playoff record with 36 points and the New York Liberty beat the Atlanta Dream 91-82 on Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs.

Jonquel Jones added 20 points and 13 rebounds for the top-seeded Liberty, which won the best-of-three series and will face either Las Vegas or Seattle in the next round, which begins Sunday in New York.

The Liberty took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter and the teams were neck and neck before Courtney Vandersloot made a layup with 5:41 left to make it 75-72 and spark a 12-2 run. Breanna Stewart followed later in the run with an offensive tip-in, her first points since the second quarter.

Leonie Fiebich, who scored 21 points in the opening game, extended the lead to 82-74 with 4:11 minutes left. She hit a three-pointer on the next possession to give New York a double-digit lead for the first time in the game.

Atlanta couldn’t get any closer than seven the rest of the way.

Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard did everything they could to avoid elimination. Gray finished with 26 points and Howard added 19. She also had a massive block on Stewart on a quick counterattack in the third quarter.

Unlike Game 1, when New York overran Atlanta, the Dream got off to a fast start thanks to Gray. They led 28-19 as Gray scored 14 points in the first 10 minutes, hitting all five of her shots, including four 3-pointers.

Atlanta led by 11 points in the second quarter before Ionescu started hitting deep threes. She got the Liberty back on their feet and briefly put them ahead 40-36 before the Dream closed the half on a 12-3 run to lead 48-43 at the break.

Ionescu was tied with Cappie Pondexter as the Liberty player who scored the most points in the postseason.

The game was once again sold out, including Olympian Gabby Thomas, singer Pharrell, Spike Lee and Whoopi Goldberg. Rapper Ja Rule performed during halftime.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball