Breanna Stewart scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Sabrina Ionescu contributed 13 points and seven assists, leading the New York Liberty to an 86-78 win over the Washington Mystics on Thursday night. With this victory, New York improved to an 8-0 record, marking the best start in franchise history, surpassing the previous 7-0 beginning set in 1997.<\/p>\n
In the third quarter, Kennedy Burke made a three-pointer with 3.3 seconds left, extending New York’s lead to 73-57. Washington rallied in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 of the first 18 points and narrowing the gap to 77-71. The Mystics had a chance to cut the deficit to seven with three minutes remaining, but after a turnover, Isabel Harrison completed a three-point play, pushing New York ahead 81-71.<\/p>\n
Despite Washington’s 6-0 run that brought the score to 81-77, Stewart made three out of four free throws and Ionescu added two more points to keep the Liberty ahead. Burke finished with 12 points, hitting four three-pointers, helping New York secure the largest margin of victory in franchise history with a 48-point lead. <\/p>\n
Rookie Kiki Iriafen led Washington with 17 points, and Jade Melbourne added 15 as the Mystics dropped to 3-6. Stewart scored 14 points in the first half, Ionescu contributed 10, and Burke nailed a corner three-pointer just before halftime, putting the Liberty up 49-34 at the break.<\/p>\n
Fan Take: This historic start by the New York Liberty signals a resurgence for the franchise and adds excitement to the WNBA season. Fans can expect a thrilling race as new talents and seasoned stars continue to elevate the level of play and visibility of women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Breanna Stewart scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Sabrina Ionescu contributed 13 points and seven assists, leading the New York Liberty to an 86-78 win over the Washington Mystics on Thursday night. With this victory, New York improved to an 8-0 record, marking the best start in franchise history, surpassing the previous 7-0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[491],"tags":[39,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-7088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}