Breanna Stewart scored 22 points, including 10 in the third quarter, as the host New York Liberty climbed out of an early 16-point hole to defeat the Atlanta Dream 81-75 on Sunday afternoon.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton scored 18 points, including a pair of big 3-pointers during the Liberty’s 16-4 burst to open the third quarter. Stewart, the reigning league MVP, added 12 rebounds as New York (16-3) ran its regular-season winning streak to four games. Laney-Hamilton also chipped in six assists and five rebounds.
The Liberty were coming off a five-point loss to the Minnesota Lynx in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game, which does not count in the league standings.
Allisha Gray netted 24 points and Tina Charles finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Dream (7-10), who were looking to make it back-to-back wins over league powers after defeating the Connecticut Sun on Friday night.
The Liberty scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter, four by Leonie Fiebich, to build a 70-59 lead.
The Dream tallied the next eight points, capped by Jordin Canada’s 3-pointer, to pull within 70-67, but New York responded with treys from Sabrina Ionescu and Fiebich and stretched the advantage to 81-72 with 1:19 to play.
New York, which shot only 27.8 percent in falling behind early, finished at 39.4 percent for the game. The Dream, who entered the matchup last in the WNBA in field goal percentage at 39.8 percent, finished at 48.3 percent.
The Dream dominated most of the first half and led 31-15 on Gray’s 3-pointer with 7:28 to play.
Atlanta was still ahead 41-27 until the Liberty went on a 9-0 run in the final 1:40. Courtney Vandersloot had two assists in the burst, and her 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left pulled New York to within 41-36 at the break.
Stewart led the Liberty with 11 in the half. Charles topped the Dream with 10 points and eight rebounds and Gray had nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.
–Field Level Media
