The New York Liberty wanted to take advantage of home court Wednesday night to advance to the semifinals in a dominant fashion, but instead it crumbled. As soon as the second quarter started, the Phoenix Mercury realized it was win or go home, and they decided to win.
The score was tied at the end of the first quarter, but the Mercury took complete command from there to secure the 86-60 win and force a Game 3.
Phoenix swarmed whoever had the ball and New York struggled maintaining possession. The Liberty turned the ball over 15 times, which was six less than Game 1, but the Mercury capitalized and converted them into 25 points.
“We’re a way better team than what we showed today,” said New York head coach Sandy Brondello. “So I was disappointed with that. We turned the ball over and gave them easy baskets in transition and just went away from what was working for us in the first game.”
The first quarter seemed to be setting up another tight game. New York jumped out to a 14-8 lead and looked dominant on both sides of the floor for the first five minutes. However, Phoenix didn’t get too behind and fought back to tie the score at 25 at the end of the frame.
Despite the score locked, the Liberty outrebounded the Mercury 11-7 and had five blocks in the first 10 minutes. Phoenix’s advantage came from the free throw line, where it made all seven of its attempts and New York went just 2-of-7.
The second quarter was a completely different story and it no longer felt like the defending champions’ home court.
“We wanted to send this to a game three,” said Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas. “I think you could feel it out there tonight, every possession, every loose ball, every rebound, we were fighting like it was the last one. We weren’t ready for our season to be over.”
Satou Sabally started the fire with the Mercury’s first seven points of the quarter. She took advantage of Breanna Stewart not being at full health and drove past her twice. Phoenix was completely fueled from there and rattled off seven points in just 58 seconds to take a 41-30 lead with 4:46 left before halftime.
New York was desperate to spark any sort of momentum and used a technical foul given to Sabally as a glimmer of hope. The Liberty ended the quarter on a 7-2 run, but they couldn’t build on it out of the locker room.
Phoenix outscored New York 26-12 in the second quarter, with four of the Liberty’s points coming from the free throw line.
New York couldn’t get anything going on offense as every player struggled to find the bottom of the net. Emma Meesseman finished the night with a team-high 11 points, except it all came in the first and third quarter. Sabrina Ionescu was next in line with nine points, but it came from 3-of-13 field goals, 1-of-8 three-pointers, and 2-of-6 free throws.
Meanwhile, the Mercury had a list of players to choose from to get a bucket. They had five players reach double digits with Thomas and Sabally notching 15, Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner adding 14, and Kathryn Westbeld contributing 10.
“All of us have to step our game up, step our defense up, our offense up,” said New York center Jonquel Jones. “Looking at the stat sheet, we’re such a powerful team offensively, and tonight they were able to really congest us and kind of muck things up.”
The Liberty weren’t able to make the adjustments needed during halftime and allowed six points within the first four minutes to extend its deficit to 57-37. They took a timeout but still couldn’t get past their woes and the score read 69-47 at the end of the third quarter. New York held Phoenix to 69 points during the 45-minute Game 1.
The game was all but decided and the Liberty gave their starters a rest. With 4:54 left in the game they faced their largest deficit at 31 points. New York’s only player on the court with points at that time was Kennedy Burke with six.
The outcome was simply waiting for the clock to expire and the Liberty will now travel back to Phoenix for a win or go home Game 3.
“We can’t go out and play the same way we did and expect a different result,” Ionescu said. “We have to go out and make the adjustments and play like our season’s on the line, because it is, and so is theirs. It’s going to come down to who can execute, who can string together the best 40 minutes of basketball.”
