The Liberty flipped a six-point halftime deficit in the third quarter by coming out hitting a flurry of threes on its way to defeating the Connecticut Sun, 81-65.
The win gives the Liberty its second straight win before hitting the road for two games against the Seattle Storm and Chicago Sky.
Saturday’s matinee started with a much slower pace compared to the first two games. The Liberty were met with much more resistance at the point of attack and weren’t able to break loose in transition due to the Suns’ defense.
Sandy Brondello’s team got some early buckets as a result of Breanna Stewart and Stef Dolson creating opportunities from the free throw line, assisting on buckets from teammates cutting along the baseline. They combined for six assists in the first half and Courtney Vandersloot added five assists in the first two quarters.
Stewart scored a team-high 21 points with six rebounds and five assists. Vandersloot had a double-double, scoring 18 points with 10 assists.
The Sun was up seven early in the first and stayed in the game despite a slow start from Alyssa Thomas, who finished with just five points and eight rebounds.
Brionna Jones and DeWanna Bonner had success working in the paint to start the game. The tandem exhibited nice footwork, helping an offense that didn’t get a fast break point until the second half.
Tiffany Jones led the way for the Sun with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field.
Jones finished with 12 points and eight rebounds while Bonner added 14 points.
The Sun started the season going 3-0 and has gone a bit under the radar with attention going to the superteams in the league. First-year coach Stephanie White’s team already has two wins over a stout Mystics team and defeated the Fever in the season opener. The team looks to take the next step in 2023 after being defeated by the Aces in last year’s WNBA Finals.
“Well I don’t think it matters,” White said when asked if it’s strange that the team isn’t garnering much attention at the start of the season. “I think that when you look at this group, and honestly, when you look at this franchise, we’re used to being the underdogs.”
She later continued to say, “At the end of the day, we don’t want people talking about us in May, we want people talking about us in October.”
The first regular-season meeting between the two teams featured a homecoming for ex-Liberty guard Rebecca Allen. The Liberty played a tribute video for the guard, who spent seven seasons with the squad.
Allen played 16 minutes in her homecoming at Barclays Center.
“Yeah, I love Bec,” Dolson, who was Allen’s teammate in 2022, said pregame. “Within one season we got pretty close.
“Her smile is what makes her so different. Like you can see [her smile] from a mile away and she’s just a good person, good player.”