Sabrina Ionescu erupts for 36 points as Liberty snap four-game skid in Emma Meesseman’s debut
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Sabrina Ionescu had enough.
If the Liberty were going to end their four-game losing streak — the team’s longest since 2022 — she knew it was on her to do something.
So from the start of Sunday’s game at Connecticut, Ionescu went nuclear.
She scored 16 of her 36 points in the first quarter to help lift the Liberty to a 87-78 win and out of this godforsaken funk.
The M-V-P chants — perhaps led by the more than 200 Liberty season-ticket holders whom the team bussed up for the game — started to break out for Ionescu as she stepped to the free throw line in the second half.
Ionescu shot 14-for-22 from the field and finished just one point shy of matching her career high.
She also registered her first double-double of the season, adding 11 rebounds.
She also registered her 1,000th career assist in the second quarter — one of her four in the game — when she fed a cutting Rebekah Gardner for a layup.
Ionescu is the third fastest WNBA player to reach the career milestone, doing so in 170 games.
Only Ticha Penicheiro (134 games) and Teresa Weatherspoon (159) have eclipsed 1,000 assists quicker.
Ionescu had some help, of course.
New York, which is riddled with injuries, got a lift from Emma Meesseman in her Liberty debut.
The Belgium star, who spent most of the first half settling in, finished with a modest 11 points, two rebounds and three assists in her first WNBA game since 2022.
Jonquel Jones added 21 points and nine rebounds.
Sunday was a far better showing for the Liberty than the monstrosity that unfolded Friday.
New York committed a season-high 23 turnovers and were overwhelmed by the pesky Sun’s physicality as five-win Connecticut bested the defending champions by 16 points.
The travel-weary Liberty (18-10) will cap off this brutal stretch of the schedule, when they’re playing six games in 10 days, Tuesday against the Wings in Brooklyn.
