Breanna Stewart had 19 points, 11 rebounds and five assists on Thursday to help the New York Liberty post a 104-90 victory over the Atlanta Dream in College Park, Ga.
Satou Sabally added 19 points on 5-for-6 3-point shooting, while Marine Johannes chipped in 17 points for New York (9-4, 4-0 Commissioner’s Cup), which overtook Atlanta (8-4, 3-2) for first place in the Eastern Conference.
Jonquel Jones had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and Pauline Astier added 16, eight and five, respectively, as the Liberty won their sixth straight game.
Angel Reese’s 25 points and nine rebounds led Atlanta, while Rhyne Howard had 24 points and Allisha Gray finished with 18 for the Dream, who had won four of their previous five.
After Johannes’ 3-pointer to begin the second half pushed the Liberty’s lead to 10, Naz Hillmon and Howard answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to start a game-tying 12-2 run.
Jones’ 3-pointer then stamped a 7-0 New York spurt, giving the Liberty a 63-56 advantage with 5:15 left in the third.
The margin ballooned to 13 on consecutive triples by Rebekah Gardner and Raquel Carrera. Sabally connected on a pair of 3-pointers to push New York’s lead to 80-62, and the Liberty led by 16 entering the fourth.
From there, Gray scored five in a row to cut the deficit to 11. New York then scored six straight, including Leonie Fiebich’s triple, to take an 86-69 lead with 7:50 remaining.
Sabally’s triple pushed the lead to 18 at the 5:08 mark, sealing the comfortable victory.
New York took an early 11-3 lead on Jones’ 3-pointer, before Atlanta went on an 8-0 run to knot the score with 3:36 left in the first period. The Liberty led 21-19 after one quarter.
Howard began the second with five straight points to give the Dream their first lead of the game. Isobel Borlase’s 3-pointer extended Atlanta’s advantage to six with 7:32 remaining in the first half.
An 11-2 New York spurt put the visitors ahead 38-33. After Reese’s layup in the final seconds of the half pulled the Dream within four, Astier connected on a 52-foot heave at the buzzer to give the Liberty a 51-44 halftime lead.
Johannes and Reese each scored 14 first-half points to lead their respective sides.
–Field Level Media
