The New York Liberty secured their first WNBA title on Sunday, a year after being eliminated in the championship round for the fifth time, by defeating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime in a winner-takes-all Game 5 in Brooklyn.
Jonquel Jones scored a team-high 17 points as she was named the WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player, and the top-seeded Liberty overcame a sluggish start to deny the Lynx a record fifth title.
“This is something special right here and I’m trying not to cry,” said Breanna Stewart, who won gold at the Paris Olympics for Team USA with Sabrina Ionescu.
“We had a lot of ups and downs. This series was tough, but we got through it because we wanted to bring this series to this city and our audience.”
Timely shot blocking and a clutch 3-pointer from Ionescu, her team’s first of the game, allowed New York to take a four-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but neither team could pull away.
Stewart missed a chance to tie the game with 38 seconds left in regulation when he missed a pair of free throws, but redeemed himself on the next line move to force an extra period.
New York got a jump ball to start overtime and quickly won the game on a Leonie Fiebich 3-pointer before Nyara Sabally took its largest lead of the game.
Stewart sealed the title by hitting two free throws with 10 seconds left in overtime.
Liberty, who squandered a chance to win Friday at Minnesota, had a poor start in Game 5. They missed their first 16 3-point attempts and didn’t lead until late in the third quarter.
Minnesota, led by Napheesa Collier, led 19-10 after a first quarter in which Stewart and Ionescu, Liberty’s two leading scorers this year, failed to score.
The Lynx used stout defense to keep Stewart and Ionescu from finding their rhythm, but Liberty, who missed all nine 3-point attempts in the first half, used a late surge to cut a 12-point deficit and go up by seven. break down
New York was more energized to start the third quarter and took its first lead of the game late in the half when Ionescu connected on a brilliant pass to Sabally to put the hosts ahead 40-38 and wake up the home crowd. .
Jones, who averaged 17.8 points in the finals, said after being named MVP, “I never dreamed of something like this.”
“This is the biggest moment and if you want to be champion you have to lock it in. This was it and it was all about winning together because we love each other so much.”
