Rookie Leonie Fiebich scored a career-high 21 points to help the New York Liberty beat the visiting Atlanta Dream 83-69 on Sunday in Game 1 of their WNBA playoff series.
Breanna Stewart added 20 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks for the top-seeded Liberty, who never trailed and led by as many as 22. Game 2 of the best-of-three first-round series is Tuesday in New York.
Fiebich, whose previous career-high was 16 points, started on Sunday after making just 15 during the regular season. She shot 7-for-8 from the floor, including all four of her 3-point attempts.
Sabrina Ionescu made three triples and had 17 points, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added 10 points for New York. Both players had five assists. Jonquel Jones paired nine points with seven boards.
Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot notched her 365th career playoff assist to surpass Sue Bird (2002-22), who attended Sunday’s game, for the most in WNBA history. Vandersloot finished with three assists and two steals off the bench.
New York outshot Atlanta 43.3 percent to 39.7 percent on field-goal attempts and made 17 of 18 free throws.
Rhyne Howard had 14 points to lead the eighth-seeded Dream, who won at New York in Thursday’s regular-season finale to clinch the final playoff spot. Tina Charles tallied 12 points and seven rebounds, while Allisha Gray and Naz Hillmon each scored nine.
The Liberty made their first five 3-point attempts to open up an 18-point lead in the first quarter. Fiebich and Ionescu each connected twice, with Ionescu’s second trey making it 27-9 at the 1:34 mark. Ionescu had 12 first-quarter points for New York, which shot 8 of 11 to carry a 29-16 lead into the second.
The teams traded points throughout the second quarter until the Liberty scored eight straight to surge ahead 48-29. Fiebich added seven points the quarter and finished the half with 15 on 5-of-5 shooting.
New York held Howard, Atlanta’s top regular-season scorer (17.3 points per game), to two points on 0-for-6 shooting in the half. The Liberty shot 54.8 percent in the first two quarters and led 48-30 at the break.
Howard heated up in the third quarter, hitting 5 of 8 shots for 12 points. Fiebich added two more triples as New York led 69-49 entering the fourth.
–Field Level Media
