Liberty survive late surge from A’ja Wilson-less Aces in front of star-studded crowd

This Liberty team feels they can go where last season’s could not.

Of that, they received some direct evidence on Sunday by completing a season sweep of the team that vanquished the Liberty in the 2023 Finals, defeating the A’ja Wilson-less Aces in dramatic fashion, 75-71, at Barclays Center.

It took a late go-ahead jumper from Sabrina Ionescu followed by a block from Breanna Stewart to seal victory in a game they once led by 20 points, dampening some of the enthusiasm over what was on course to be a statement win. But even as the Liberty were less than thrilled with their play, they are still cobbling together wins over playoff teams.

“Obviously it wasn’t a pretty win, but you gotta be able to win ugly,” Ionescu said. “Especially in this league, not everything’s gonna look great. We hold ourselves to a really high standard, which is why the morale might be a little low with a win like this. But at the end of the day, we’re 3-0 against Vegas this regular season.”

By the time the fourth quarter started, it was an open question whether a matchup billed as a heavyweight fight would turn into a competitive affair at all.

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With Stewart and Ionescu on the bench, the Aces had cut what had been a 20-point Liberty lead down to 13 entering the final 10 minutes, but appeared to be very much chasing the game.

The Liberty would not get off so easily.

A quick 5-0 Aces run to start the quarter signaled that, yes indeed this would be a fight. Things got hairier after Betnijah Laney-Hamilton went down while chasing a rebound, grabbing at a right knee on which she had surgery in July. Then came another five-point Vegas spurt, cutting the lead to three.

All that came before the Liberty had so much as scored in the fourth quarter.

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“Felt like in the third quarter, we kinda had a drop-off in our play,” Jonquel Jones said. “And honestly at the end, it was just whatever we had to do.”

Down the stretch, the whole thing briefly devolved into slop, with the Aces appearing ready to take the lead on a Sydney Colson transition layup that missed, before Leonie Fiebich nailed a deep two on the other end to bring the lead back to three.

The Aces, however, wouldn’t wait much longer to hold their first lead since the first quarter, with threes from Kelsey Plum and Colson putting them ahead 71-70 with just under two minutes to go.

Ionescu — who had struggled through most of the fourth — finally came up big with a turnaround elbow jumper to take the lead back with 44 seconds to go.

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After Ionescu converted just one of two at the line following Plum’s miss at the rim, Vegas had a chance to tie or win with 19 seconds to go.

And while Jones had taken the lead on rim protection for much of the day, it was Stewart who blocked Jackie Young at the rim to seal victory.

“Obviously, we’re happy that we’re going away with this one,” said Stewart, who led New York with 21 points. “But we were up 20 at one point. … Sometimes, it seemed like we were just out there floating.”

The win — in front of a star-studded crowd that included Dawn Staley, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, Jordan Chiles and Devin Booker — pushed the Liberty, now 29-6 with six games left in the regular season, ever closer to what appears to be an inevitable No. 1 playoff seeding, but amplified the work to be done between now and the regular season’s end.

More concerning is the injury to Laney-Hamilton, who walked off gingerly without help but did not return to the game.

“Not yet,” coach Sandy Brondello said when asked for an update. “She was in the locker room. Just praying that she’ll be OK. She got hit pretty hard. Let’s see.”

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