Liberty even WNBA Finals with Game 2 defeat of Lynx

NEW YORK —  Breanna Stewart wasn’t going to let history repeat itself.

With the Minnesota Lynx making another fourth quarter run, the two-time league MVP refused to let the New York Liberty lose again.

Stewart scored 21 points and had a WNBA Finals record seven steals to help the Liberty beat the Lynx 80-66 on Sunday in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

Just like Game 1, New York built a double-digit lead in the first half, only to see it evaporate. This time they didn’t completely collapse, holding on to even the series 1-1 as it shifts to Minnesota for Game 3 on Wednesday night.

“The moment the game ended Thursday night I was looking forward to Sunday to change things, change the narrative a little bit,” Stewart said. “Be the same I was and be obviously better.”

Minnesota trailed by nine points early in the fourth before getting within 68-66 on Courtney Williams’ layup with 3:40 left in the game. Those were the last points Minnesota would score.

“Our offense was bad at a time when we really needed it. Our pace was slow,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Taking too long to get into things, and you know, I don’t think we were terribly hard to play against from that standpoint. And that was obviously a difficult time to be doing that.”

New York clamped down defensively and converted offensively. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton started the game-closing 12-0 run with a three-pointer in the corner. Stewart’s putback with 57 seconds left gave New York a double-digit advantage. She missed a free throw with 0.8 seconds left in regulation of Game 1 that would have lifted New York to victory in that contest.

Laney-Hamilton finished with 20 points, hitting key shots for the team throughout the game as well as being a defensive stopper. She missed more than a month after injuring her right knee before the Olympic break. She’s still been working her way back.

“I think what she brings is this grit, this toughness,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “All of us know she’s giving us whatever she’s got. And the way that she continued to be aggressive, they were going under on her and she knocked that thing down with confidence.”

Stewart also had eight rebounds and five assists to go with the steals mark.

“I wanted to make it difficult for all the players I was going against,” Stewart said.

Once again the game drew a sellout crowd of 18,046 that included Jennifer Hudson, Katie Couric, Fat Joe and UConn coach Geno Auriemma. It was the largest crowd ever for the Liberty at Barclays.

With the win, New York avoided going down 0-2 and having to pull off a historic comeback. All 20 teams that had been down 0-2 in the best-of-five Finals had lost the series.

Napheesa Collier had 16 points and Williams added 15 for the Lynx.

New York led 23-21 before scoring the final eight points of the first quarter to go up 31-21 at the break. Sabrina Ionescu had 10 of her 15 points in the opening 10 minutes and Stewart added seven.

The Liberty extended the lead to 46-31 before Minnesota closed to 10 at the half.

The Lynx got to within 57-53 near the end of the third quarter before Stewart made two free throws, had a massive block on the other end and then capped it off by making a jumper from the quarter to give New York a 61-53 advantage heading to the fourth.

The Liberty led 64-55 early in the fourth before the Lynx scored 11 of the next 15 points to briefly get within striking distance.