NEW YORK — We finally got the Liberty and Mercury going at each other pretty close to full strength.
And at the start, it looked like it was going to be a great one.
Both teams had all of their starpower and key contributors — except for New York’s Nyara Sabally — as a see-saw battle went into the fourth quarter undecided.
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But Sabrina Ionescu and the Liberty shined the brightest in an 89-76 win.
Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper had their way early at Barclays Center, with Copper converting on contested shot attempts and Thomas playing bully ball.
Ionescu couldn’t trade buckets with them, scoring just three points in the first quarter as the Mercury star duo totaled 17.
But Ionescu regrouped and scored 26 in the final three quarters to send the Mercury home with a loss. She finished with one of her best stat lines of the season: 29 points, eight assists, five rebounds, one block and one steal.
It was her night.
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She signaled that with just over seven minutes in the fourth after converting an and-1 layup on Monique Akoa Makani. And on the next possession, she put her team up 15 with another layup after weaving through Phoenix’s defense.
After a Mercury bucket, Leonie Fiebich essentially scored the dagger — a 24-footer that put the Liberty up 16 at the 5:43 mark.
The ending looked completely different from the start when the Libs were held scoreless for over three minutes to start the matchup. Jonquel Jones dragged her team back, though, with nine points in the period to keep the deficit within four.
Before Ionescu exploded, it was Jones looking like the No. 1 option. She was on double-double watch before halftime and eventually finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
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Thomas finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists and two steals. Copper contributed 14 points and three rebounds.
The teams traded blows, and the Liberty eventually trailed by 12 in the period. Coach Sandy Brondello’s team responded with a 17-7 run in the final minutes, headlined by nine Ionescu points.
Just like that, the game was tied at 46 going into halftime.
It was a game the Liberty should’ve been losing big. By halftime, the Liberty were shooting 34.2% to Phoenix’s 48.6%.
The Liberty’s third quarter began sloppily and slowly. The Mercury — again led by Copper — got off to an 8-3 start.
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But that’s where having the luxury of two MVPs and three All-Star players comes in handy. A fourth All-Star — Emma Meesseman — is awaiting a visa and will be in New York shortly.
A quick three-minute, 11-3 run flipped the game once again. Breanna Stewart’s layup at the 2:19 mark put her team up three and forced Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts to call timeout.
Ionescu’s barrage continued with a 25-foot trey after Kennedy Burke’s block on Satou Sabally. Then Jones — in the corner in front of the Mercury bench — banked in a buzzer-beater that was upheld after an official review to end the third. It put the Libs up eight entering the fourth.
The Sabrina Show continued from there — this time with four assists as the Mercury’s comeback attempt fell short. The road team trailed by as many as 18 points before cutting it to 10. Finally, the Liberty could exhale after dropping the first two games of the season against the Mercury.
Not enough time was left and the Liberty put them in too deep of a hole Friday night.
And there was mainly one player to blame for that — No. 20, Sabrina Ionescu.
