Las Vegas Aces vs New York Liberty Live Score & Stats – October 1, 2024 GameTracker

NEW YORK (AP) Sabrina Ionescu and her New York teammates downplayed the Aces on the brink of collapse. In their minds, they still haven't accomplished anything.

Ionescu scored 24 points and the Liberty beat Las Vegas 88-84 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five semifinal series.

“It's great to be 2-0 up, but we haven't won anything,” Ionescu said. “Everybody knows that. What we were supposed to do, defend home court. Two wins at home. We're not patting ourselves on the back, talking about how happy we are. We didn't come to win two games at home and be satisfied, we are a hungry team.”

Game 3 takes place Friday night in Las Vegas, where the two-time defending champion Aces try to avoid being swept by a team they defeated in the WNBA Finals last year.

“We defended the home court. We want to go to Vegas,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We play well on the road and they play great at home.”

History favors New York.

No team in WNBA postseason history has gone 2-0 to win a best-of-five playoff series. Only Phoenix was able to force a Game 5 in 2018 against Seattle.

“It's a series for a reason, no championship won in two wins,” Aces forward Alisha Clark said. “I've had a lot of playoff experiences where I was 2-0, down 2-0. The series is not over.”

The game was tied at 81 before Ionescu hit a jumper with 1:15 left to give New York a two-point lead. Both teams had chances before Tiffany Hayes was fouled with 16.9 seconds left on a jump ball.

Hayes hit the first of two free throws to make it a one-point game. New York secured the rebound and with 11.6 seconds left, Ionescu was fouled and hit just one free throw to make it 84-82.

Las Vegas had a chance to tie it, but the ball went out of bounds on the sideline with 10.5 to play, and after New York challenged it as the Aces' ball, the officials overturned the decision and awarded the ball to the Liberty.

Ionescu, who had seven of the Liberty's final nine points, then hit two free throws to make it a two-possession game.

“He steps up in big moments, doesn't shy away from moments,” Liberty center Jonkel Jones said.

A'ja Wilson answered with a jumper with 5.6 left and Breanna Stewart hit two free throws with less than a second to seal the win.

“It was close down the stretch, but they made more plays than we did,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said.

Hammon said after Game 1 that Tuesday's game was “do or die.”

“Did I say it will win? I'm lying,” the coach said with a laugh after Tuesday's game. “Trying to make a play.”

Stewart finished with 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

Wilson scored 24 points and Jackie Young added 17.

The Liberty led 69-62 heading into the final period before Clark's 3-pointer with 1:31 left tied the game at 81 behind Ace Wilson.

After a rough start in Game 1, the Aces led 27-22 after the first quarter behind a strong opening 10 minutes from Chelsea Gray. He had just four points in the Game 1 loss, and Hammon said he would discuss it with his star guard. Gray responded by coming out aggressively with 10 points in the first 10 minutes.

The teams went back and forth and Las Vegas led 40-37 with 2:33 left in the half before Ionescu sandwiched two 3-pointers around Kayla Thornton's three-point play to give New York a 46-40 advantage at the break. , drawing loud cheers from the sellout crowd, including Carmelo Anthony, Alicia Keys, Robin Roberts, Colin Kaepernick and Gayle King.

Liberty great Teresa Weatherspoon was also in the crowd. Last week he was fired by the Chicago Sky as their coach. He received a loud ovation from the fans when he was shown on the video screen in the fourth quarter.

Not only fans are up for watching the series in person. Game 1 of the series averaged 929,000 viewers on TV. It's the most-watched WNBA semifinal in 22 years.

Aces beat center Kia Stokes with 9.5 seconds left in the third quarter. He was chasing a loose ball out of bounds and fell to the ground after fouling a loose ball. He was down for a few minutes before being helped back to the locker room. The team said he suffered a possible concussion.

“It's a hit in the head now,” Hammon said. “We'll wait and see, I don't have much information for you. We will monitor him very closely.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball