Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Behind 21 points and a WNBA Finals-record seven steals by Breanna Stewart, the host New York Liberty evened the score against the Minnesota Lynx in the championship series, winning Game 2 80-66 on Sunday afternoon in front of 18,046 fans — a record crowd for women’s basketball at the Barclays Center.

Stewart also had eight rebounds and five assists while shooting 7-of-18 from the floor in a stat-stuffing performance.

New York also got a breakout performance from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who had her first 20-point outing since July 6 and just her fourth overall of the season. The ninth-year forward shot 8-of-14 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from 3-point land, and also had two rebounds and two assists.

The Liberty, who tied up the best-of-five series at 1-1, also got 14 points and nine rebounds from Jonquel Jones and 15 points and five assists from Sabrina Ionescu.

Minnesota — which will host Game 3 on Wednesday in Minneapolis — was led by 16 points from Napheesa Collier, 15 points from Courtney Williams and 14 points from Alanna Smith.

Much like Game 1, the Liberty built a big lead early. Unlike the series opener, though, they didn’t completely blow it.

New York led 31-21 after the first quarter, powered by 12 points and two assists from Ionescu. In the second frame, the Liberty grew their lead to as many as 17 points with a 15-8 run that was capped off by a 3-pointer from Laney-Hamilton.

The Lynx started chipping away in the second half.

With 3:40 left to play, Minnesota trimmed the deficit to two points when Williams sliced through the heart of the defense for a layup. But on the next possession, Laney-Hamilton responded with authority, swishing a 3-pointer from the left wing. After a Stewart free throw, Leonie Fiebich then knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer — her only points of the game — in transition to push New York’s lead back to nine points with 90 seconds remaining.

A big difference between the two teams was 3-point shooting, where the Liberty knocked down 11 shots from behind the arc on 24 attempts, while the Lynx shot 6-of-20.

The Liberty also won the rebounding battle 34-27 and scored 26 points off 20 Minnesota turnovers.

–Field Level Media