UConn legend Breanna Stewart anchors New York Liberty to victory over Minnesota Lynx in WNBA Finals Game 2

NEW YORK — With former coach Geno Auriemma in the sold-out crowd at Barclays Center, UConn legend Breanna Stewart anchored the No. 1 seed New York Liberty to an 80-66 win over the Minnesota Lynx and fellow Husky Napheesa Collier in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday.

“Honestly, I kind of texted (Auriemma) and I was like you know what, it’s about time that you come,” Stewart said with a grin. “I’ve been here for two years, he hasn’t come down. Like, what are you doing?”

Stewart put on a show for her college coach with a team-high 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but she was arguably the most impactful defensively. She more than doubled her postseason career high with seven steals to sent a finals record, contributing to a whopping 20 turnovers forced against the Lynx. The Liberty scored 26 points off Minnesota’s lost possessions, and Stewart also added a block to her stat line.

The complete performance was particularly rewarding for Stewart after she missed both a game-winning free throw and a game-tying layup in New York’s overtime loss to the Lynx in Game 1.

“It’s just like not letting history kind of repeat itself, and knowing that Game 1 happened, but now how can we control Game 2?” Stewart said. “The moment the game ended Thursday night, I was looking forward to Sunday just to be able to kind of change things, change the narrative a little bit and know I’m going to come out and be the same that I was, and be obviously better. Throughout this entire process, my team has my back every step of the way. I was just excited to have another opportunity to go to battle with them.”

The Liberty controlled the first half behind Stewart, who led the team on both ends of the floor with 14 points, five assists and three steals. Despite starting 0-for-2 from 3-point range, Stewart kept shooting and eventually started to hit. She made her first outside shot in the final minute of the first quarter and added another midway through the second that opened up a 16-point lead for New York.

Though Collier won the matchup in Game 1, Stewart’s defensive effort on her former UConn teammate was smothering in Game 2. Collier gave up a team-high four turnovers before halftime scoring just eight points, and Minnesota had 10 first-half turnovers as a team that resulted in 14 points for the Liberty. New York also dominated in transition, outscoring Minnesota 17-0 on fast breaks.

But Collier was still impactful on defense, spending most of the first half matched up against 6-foot-6 center Jonquel Jones in the paint. The 6-2 Lynx star held Jones to just six points on six field goal attempts after she led New York with 24 points in Game 1. Despite trailing wire-to-wire, the Lynx managed to cut the Liberty lead to 49-39 entering halftime.

Minnesota continued chipping away in the second half getting within a single score of New York, but the team began to struggle when Collier checked out for three minutes at the end of the third quarter after picking up her fourth foul. Former UConn standout Dorka Juhasz got her first minutes of the series alongside Myisha Hines-Allen to give Collier and center Alanna Smith a rest, but Stewart clamped down on the fellow former Husky with a block on Juhasz’s first shot attempt. The Liberty superstar then drained a long two-pointer in Juhasz’s face on the other end to send New York into the fourth quarter leading by eight.

With Collier rotating between Stewart and Jones, New York’s pair of former MVPs struggled to make an impact offensively down the stretch. Stewart logged eight points the entire second half, and Jones finished with 14 despite leading the team on the boards with nine. Instead it was Betnijah Laney-Hamilton making plays for the Liberty, hitting a 3-pointer with under three minutes to play that made it a two-possession game after Minnesota got within two points. Rookie forward Leonie Fiebich delivered a dagger three off a steal with 90 seconds left that put New York up by nine.

Collier had one of her lowest-scoring games of the playoffs with 16 points despite averaging 26 over the previous eight games. She led the Lynx in steals with four and rebounds with eight, also adding three assists, but she also finished with a team-high seven turnovers, tying her career worst set in the 2020 regular season.

New York’s victory tied the series 1-1, and Minnesota now has an opportunity to defend its home court at Target Center in Minneapolis beginning with Game 3 on Wednesday

“We’re really disappointed I think in how we played today, but excited to go home and play in front of our crowd,” Collier said. “We have to respond. We have to come out better than we did in these two games. It’s hard. We’re both competing for a championship, so you have to play with a level of desperation from the very beginning, and that’s what we’re goign to need to do in Game 3.”