ANGEL REESE and Jordin Canada scored 23 points apiece as the Atlanta Dream outlasted the visiting New York Liberty, 101-98, in overtime on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five semifinal series.
Rhyne Howard added 18 points and Naz Hillmon scored 12 for the Dream, who can punch their ticket to the WNBA Finals with a Game 3 win in New York on Friday.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” New York’s Breanna Stewart said about staving off elimination on Friday. “We’re not focused on winning three straight games right now. We’re focused on winning one game and that’s Friday. Then we’ll go from there.”
Isobel Borlase had 11 points and DeWanna Bonner chipped in 10 for Atlanta, which played without its leading scorer Allisha Gray, who was inactive due to a finger injury.
“That was hard to have one of your key players go down, but we told her we had her back today,” Canada said. “We just have that next-man-up mentality. Allisha gives us energy, no matter if she’s playing or not. That’s what we need from her. I thought she was telling us what we needed to hear in the huddles.”
Stewart had 35 points and 11 rebounds for New York, while Jonquel Jones scored 21 and Marine Fauthoux had 20. Sabrina Ionescu finished with 10 points and seven assists but committed a costly turnover with 6.5 seconds remaining in overtime.
The Dream built a five-point overtime lead on Howard’s three-point play and Reese’s layup with 3:37 remaining. New York answered with eight straight points, taking its first lead since the first half on Jones’ 3-pointer with 2:01 left.
After Atlanta pulled back ahead on Reese’s layup, Stewart answered with a basket to give the Liberty a 98-97 advantage with 33.8 seconds to go.
Hillmon then made a layup, returning the lead to the Dream with 20.8 seconds left. Ionescu threw the ball away on the other end before Reese made two free throws.
Stewart missed a desperation 3-pointer in the final seconds, sealing Atlanta’s victory.
“Amazing game,” Atlanta coach Karl Smesko said. “Glad that we were able to regroup in overtime and just find a way to win. Remarkable performance by a lot of our players. Really proud of them.”
The Dream extended its two-point halftime lead to eight on consecutive 3-pointers by Borlase with 1:59 left in the third quarter. After a New York timeout, Stewart made two free throws before Fauthoux scored five straight points to cut the deficit to 75-74 entering the fourth.
Reese made a layup to extend the margin to five at the 3:31 mark before Howard’s three-point play made it 86-80 with 1:55 left.
After Ionescu cut the lead in half with a trey, Stewart pulled New York Liberty within a point on a layup with 26.5 seconds remaining.
Reese then drilled two free throws, and after a Liberty time out, Fauthoux buried a game-tying 3-pointer with 10.3 seconds to go.
Howard’s runner on the final possession of regulation rimmed out, sending the game to overtime.
Stewart’s jumper gave New York a 54-53 lead with 47.9 seconds remaining in the first half before Howard answered with a 3-pointer to send Atlanta into halftime ahead 56-54. — Reuters