May 25, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Official Wilson basketball with WNBA logo flies through the net during the game between the LA Sparks and the Las Vegas Aces at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Sabrina Ionescu scored 20 points, 16 of them in a passionate first quarter, as the New York Liberty crushed the Dallas Wings 99-67 in Arlington, Texas, on Thursday, in the second game between the teams in three nights.
New York (31-6) won its fifth straight game and is 3 1/2 games ahead of the Minnesota Lynx at the top of the playoffs going into the final three games of the regular season. Minnesota did not play Thursday, has four games remaining and will play at home against the Chicago Sky on Friday before the final meeting of the year between the Liberty and Lynx on Sunday in Brooklyn.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton scored 17 points for New York, and Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot each scored 11 points in shortened appearances. Neither Ionescu nor Stewart played in the fourth quarter, when the game was already decided.
Maddy Siegrist and Arike Ogunbowale each scored 11 points to lead Dallas. The Wings (9-28), one of two teams in the league eliminated in the postseason, lost their sixth straight game.
With her performance on Thursday, Ogunbowale became the Wings’ all-time leading point scorer, with 3,972 points to her name.
The Liberty got off to a strong start, scoring the game’s first nine points in the first 1:30 of the opening quarter. New York led by as many as 10 points in that stretch, as Ionescu outscored the Wings in that quarter, hitting 4 of 5 shots from beyond the three-point line. The Liberty led 25-15 after the first 10 minutes of play.
New York didn’t let up and extended its lead to 40-21 on a basket and two free throws by Laney-Hamilton, the latter with 5:10 left in the second quarter. The Liberty extended its lead to 21 late in the quarter before settling for a 50-32 halftime lead.
Ionescu was the top scorer with 16 points before halftime and Laney-Hamilton added 12 points for the Liberty. Natasha Howard was the best player for Dallas with eight points.
Dallas cut the deficit to 14 points with a 6-2 run capped by a layup by Satou Sabally early in the third quarter. But the Liberty countered and took a 63-41 lead when Vandersloot scored on a layup with 5:32 left in the quarter. New York entered the final quarter with a 73-55 lead.
–Field level media
