Liberty and record-breaking Stewart hold off Lynx to level WNBA finals

The New York Liberty held off the Minnesota Lynx in Game 2 of the WNBA finals on Sunday afternoon, weathering another dogged fourth-quarter comeback before pulling away for a 80-66 win that leveled the best-of-five championship series at one game apiece.

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Three days after blowing an 18-point lead in a stunning Game 1 overtime loss on their home floor, New York led from wire to wire behind Breanna Stewart, the two-time Most Valuable Player who stuffed the box score with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and a WNBA finals-record seven steals. The Liberty also got 20 points from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who bounced back from a quiet five-point effort on Thursday for her highest scoring output since July.

Schedule

Best-of-five series. All times Eastern.

Thu 10 Oct Game 1: Minnesota 95, New York 93 (OT)

Sun 13 Oct Game 2: New York 80, Minnesota 66

Wed 16 Oct Game 3: New York at Minnesota, 8pm, ESPN

Fri 18 Oct Game 4: New York at Minnesota, 8pm, ESPN

Sun 20 Oct Game 5: Minnesota at New York, 8pm, ESPN*

*–if necessary

“I couldn’t wait to come back here Sunday and change the narrative a little bit,” Stewart said afterward. “I just wanted to make it very difficult for every single one of the players I was going up against today.”

Playing before a franchise-record crowd of 18,046 fans at the Barclays Center, the Liberty led by 31-21 after the first quarter and as many as 17 points in the first half behind a blistering start by Sabrina Ionescu, who poured in 14 of her 15 points before half-time. The Lynx chipped away after the intermission, getting as close as 68-66 on a Courtney Williams driving lay-up with 3:40 remaining.

But Laney-Hamilton’s corner three off a deft no-look pass from Ionescu kicked off a show-closing run of 12 unanswered points and New York never looked back, moving within two wins of the franchise’s first WNBA championship as the series heads back to Minnesota for Wednesday night’s Game 3.

“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.

“This is a group that problem-solves well together. We put ourselves in position, just couldn’t get over the hump.”

For Laney-Hamilton, the ninth-year forward who was sidelined for over a month with a right-knee injury suffered before the Olympic break, the breakout performance could not have come at a better time.

“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.”

The Lynx nearly sprang a second consecutive remarkable fightback behind strong outings by Napheesa Collier (16 points), Williams (15) and Alanna Smith (14), but were largely undone by 20 turnovers which the Liberty converted into 26 points.

While Sunday’s contest was not officially an elimination game for New York, the hosts were staring down an ominous scenario. None of the previous 20 teams facing an 0-2 deficit in the WNBA finals had come back to win the series.