CHICAGO (AP) — Sabrina Ionescu had 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists, Natasha Howard also scored 22 points and the seventh-seeded New York Liberty beat the defending champion Chicago Sky 98-91 on Wednesday night in the opening game of the WNBA playoffs.
New York scored the final 13 points of the fourth quarter as Chicago missed 10 of its last 11 shots. Ionescu made a 3-pointer and a jumper from the free-throw line during the run, and Marine Johannes highlighted the spurt with an over-the-shoulder pass to Howard (video below).
MARINE JOHANNES YOU'RE KIDDING 🤯 @MarineJ5
— WNBA (@WNBA) August 18, 2022
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/wOlMcz2jDy
“We’ve been in this situation all year and early on we were losing these games,” Ionescu said. “But we found out what it takes to win and we showed that tonight. We gotta do it again.”
Ionescu added: “Why not us? Everyone counted us out. Everyone didn’t even think we’d make it to the playoffs. I think we had a 20% chance of getting in and we all used that to add fuel to the fire. Why not us? We believe in ourselves.”
New York, which won its first playoff game since Sept. 23, 2015, will play Game 2 of the best-of-three series at Chicago on Saturday.
Betnijah Laney added 17 points and Stefanie Dolson scored 13 points for New York, which set a franchise scoring record in the playoffs. Dolson, a center, made 3 of 4 3-pointers to help the Liberty go 11 for 25 from distance.
