Jonquel Jones put up team highs of 18 points and nine rebounds in her first game back from injury, powering the host New York Liberty to a 98-84 win over the Indiana Fever on Tuesday.
Jones missed New York’s previous nine games with a right ankle sprain. She scored 13 points in the second half to help the Liberty (16-6) pull away.
Breanna Stewart had 17 points and six assists, Leonie Fiebich also scored 17 and Sabrina Ionescu and Isabelle Harrison each added 13 for New York, which beat Indiana twice in the span of a week and won the season series 3-1. Ionescu handed out a game-high nine assists.
Kelsey Mitchell poured in 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting for the Fever (12-12), who played without Caitlin Clark (groin) for the 11th time in 24 regular-season games.
Indiana’s Aliyah Boston racked up 15 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, Sophie Cunningham made 5 of 8 from deep for 15 points and Natasha Howard scored 13.
The Liberty clung to a 69-67 lead entering the fourth quarter, and Jones made the first field goal of the period off a feed from Stewart.
Indiana had a slow shooting start to the fourth but got within 76-70 on Mitchell’s pull-up with 6:51 to play. Less than a minute later, Jones responded with her third 3-pointer of the game to forge the first nine-point lead for either team.
Ionescu put the game out of reach by heating up from the arc. Last Friday’s 3-point Contest champion made two of her three treys in the final 4:24 as New York’s advantage finally broke the double-digit threshold.
In the first quarter, triples from Kennedy Burke and Ionescu on back-to-back possessions helped the Liberty move ahead by seven. Cunningham and Lexie Hull answered with consecutive 3s to cut it to 23-22 at the end of one.
The Liberty opened the second quarter on a 7-0 run before going cold. Boston made back-to-back shots and Cunningham hit a 3-pointer for a 33-32 Fever lead.
Indiana was ahead by eight when Aari McDonald converted a three-point play and Mitchell canned a 3. The Fever led 46-42 at intermission after Mitchell scored 10 points in the second quarter.
They held a 67-60 edge before New York rattled off the final nine points of the third quarter. Fiebich knocked down a 3-pointer and Stewart made the game-tying and go-ahead layups, the latter with four seconds to go.
–Field Level Media
