The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: New York Edges Golden State on Ionescu Foul Shots While ‘Vegas’ Wilson Becomes Fastest to 5,000 Points in Romp Over Connecticut

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

In danger of falling further from the top, the WNBA defending champion New York Liberty (11-3) on its current four-game road trip fought off another upset bid from expansion Golden State (7-7) Wednesday night and edged the Valkyries 81-78 in front of another 18,000+ home sellout crowd at the Chase Center in San Francisco which has been packed since the league debut last month.

The win moved the Liberty within a game of first place Minnesota, the team it beat at the finish in overtime in decisive Game 5 of the WNBA finals last fall at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Lynx will host Indiana next Tuesday for the Commissioner’s Cup at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

New York has swept all three meetings with Golden State but only the first of two over three days back East was a blowout.

On Wednesday night the Liberty received help from the return of Sabrina Ionescu who missed the last game with a neck injury.

The former Oregon all-American and past overall No. 1 draft pick taken by New York, after former Iowa standout Kate Martin hit a pair of makes late in the fourth quarter to put the Valkyries up with 1:59 left in regulation, made seven foul shots over that final stretch.

She also grabbed a key steal with 26 seconds left while Breanna Stewart double doubled with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

“I’m happy and proud we’re resilent,” Stewart said. “There’s a lot of things happening on our team that we continue to fight through no matter who is on the court.

“We know this road trip is tough and we want to take it one game at a time, and this was an incredible atmosphere to be part of.”

Ionescu, making a homecoming appearance near the East Bay neighborhood of Walnut Creek of her formative years, struggled from the field shooting 1-11 and finished with 11points.

“When it was crunch time (Sabrina) made those free throws,” said New York coach Sandy Brondello. “She’s never going to be out of a game. But, yeah, (Golden State) is a tough defensive team.”

Martin, a teammate of Caitlyn Clark with the Hawkeyes who had 21 points in the game, hit a three to get the Valkyries within a point with 12 seconds left but she and Kayla Thornton each missed a shot from deep going for the game winner.

While the Liberty are missing finals MVP Jonquel Jones for an extensive period with a right knee injury, Kennedy Burke provided 20 points off the bench.

“When we needed her, she really stepped up,” Stewart said of Burke.

Golden State’s Temi Fagbenle, the former Harvard star just returned from playing for Great Britain in the EuroBasket tourney overseas, will be available the next game but the Valkyries also missed Carla Leite with a back injury.

New York off the win moved slightly ahead of idle Phoenix which recently beat the Liberty back East and will host them Friday night.

Golden State will host Chicago the same evening.

Wednesday’s other game saw Las Vegas (7-7) blast last-place Connecticut 85-59 outscoring the Sun (2-13) in the first quarter 21-6 and 28-17 in the third.

In the game at Michelob ULTRA Arena before an Aces crowd of 10,432 reigning MVP A’ja Wilson, the former South Carolina sensation, scored 22 points for ‘Vegas and passed Breena Stewart (242) as the fastest WNBA player to get to 5,000 career points, reaching the milestone in her 238th contest.

The Sun losing streak has reached seven besides now on an 0-6 skid against the Aces.

Jackie Young scored 20 for the home folks while Chelsea Gray had 15 points, seven boards, and six assists with three blocks, and Jewell Loyd collected 13 points.

The Aces made 11from deep, three each from Young, Gray and Loyd.

Tina Charles scored 18 for the Sun, who started the game in an 0-19 deficit. Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 12 points and rookie Saniya Rivers scored 10.

Marina Marbrey has missed two Sun games with a knee injury.

Connecticut Friday visits Seattle at 10 p.m. the wrapup on five-game card airing on ION along with the Phoenix game at 10 p.m., the Valkyries game at 10 p.m., and earlier Indiana at Dallas at 7:30 p.m. and and Minnesota at Atlanta the same time.

Indiana is in a back-to-back first hosting Los Angeles Thursday at 7:30 p.m. while the other game has Las Vegas completing a back-to-back hosting Washington at 10 p.m.

Both Thursday games are on Amazon Prime.