Stewart, Ionescu lead Liberty to Game 1 win over Aces in WNBA semifinals

Breanna Stewart scored 34 points and Sabrina Ionescu had 21 to help the New York Liberty beat the visiting Las Vegas Aces 87-77 on Sunday in Game 1 of their semifinals series.

Jonquel Jones added 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Liberty. Game 2 of the best-of-5 matchup is Tuesday night in New York.

Kelsey Plum scored 24 points and A’ja Wilson added 21 for the Aces.

This was a rematch of last season’s WNBA Finals that the Aces won in four games, including clinching the championship in New York. The Liberty said they’ve had a scar from that loss and have used it as motivation all season long. New York had the best record in the league and earned the top seed in the playoffs.

Last season the Aces were the No. 1 seed, so New York had to go there for the opening two games of the Finals. The Liberty returned home down 0-2 and never could recover.

New York came out strong behind Stewart and led 28-21 after one quarter. Las Vegas closed to 37-34 with 4:11 left in the half before New York ended the second quarter with a 11-4 run to go up 10 at the break.

Stewart, who had 20 points in the opening 20 minutes, had six points in that spurt. She hit eight of her 10 shots in the first half.

The Liberty scored the first five points of the third quarter and the lead ballooned to 62-44 on a 3-pointer by Stewart. After a timeout, the Aces scored the next 12 points to get within six. Courtney Vandersloot finally ended the drought for New York with a layup that sparked a run to restore a nine-point advantage at the end of the third.

In Game 2 of the opening round series win over Atlanta, the basketball superfan gave the Liberty guard a high-five that she said felt like “New York was injected into my veins.”

Ninety seconds later, she hit another 3 that whipped the sellout crowd into a frenzy.

Las Vegas couldn’t get closer than eight the rest of the way.

This is the first time in the history of the league that the finals participants from the season before met in the semifinals. The league changed its playoff format in 2016 which allowed that to happen with the top eight teams making the postseason regardless of conference affiliation. Minnesota faced Los Angeles in the 2018 first round after the two teams had played in the WNBA Finals the previous two years.

Collier Defensive Player of the Year, Reeve best coach

Napheesa Collier was voted the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and Cheryl Reeve earned the Coach of the Year award on Sunday.

Collier won the defensive award for the first time, receiving 36 votes from a 67-person national media panel. A’ja Wilson finished second with 26 votes.

The Lynx star ranked second in the league in steals per game (1.91), She was fourth in defensive rebounds per game (7.5) and seventh in blocks per game (1.41), finishing with career highs in both categories.

Collier led the Lynx to the second-best record in the league (30-10) under the guidance of Reeve, who won the coaching award for a record fourth time. Reeve received 62 of the 67 votes for Coach of the Year. New York’s Sandy Brondello had four votes and Indiana’s Christie Sides got the one.

Reeve also earned WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year for the second time. Talisa Rhea of the Seattle Storm finished second.

Reeve broke a tie with Van Chancellor of the Houston Comets (1997-99) and Mike Thibault of the Connecticut Sun and Washington Mystics (2006, 2008 and 2013), who each won coach of the year three times. Reeve was previously honored in 2011, 2016 and 2020.