Jones Notches 102nd Career Double-Double
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
The New York Liberty ended their last home game of the regular season with a 75-66 victory against the Washington Mystics Tuesday evening on fan appreciation night at Barclays Center.
The next time fans return home to watch the Liberty, will be the WNBA playoffs, when the Liberty, seeded at #5, will face the #4 seeded Phoenix Mercury. Tuesday’s matchup was a good jumpstart as Emma Meesseman led New York with a game high 19 total and Breanna Stewart added 14.
“I thought we had a really good half, coming out very intentional, defensively first,” said New York Liberty Head Coach Sandy Brondello. “That’s the focus and that’s how we feel, as we move forward and be successful in the playoffs, as a defensive minded team, allows our offense to come out.”
The Liberty had only four turnovers in the first half of the game, but eight in the second half. New York was ahead at the end of each quarter, but were outscored 24-20 in the third quarter and 16-14 in the fourth.
“I think our communication was was top tier in that first quarter,” said Jonquel Jones. “We were communicating with each other, we understood, not just our defensive assignments, but what our foundation is as a team and what we wanted to try to force out there. I think it’s a good step in the right direction.”
Jones recorded her 102nd career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
New York was ahead 19-12 at the end of the first quarter and 41-26 at halftime, when Breanna Stewart led with 12 points and Natasha Cloud added nine.
New York now looks ahead to the playoffs. Ahead of Tuesday’s game, Brondello told reporters that she hoped to get the chemistry and the rotation “down pat”. “Playing good basketball so we can go into the playoffs really confident,” she said.
Sabrina Ionescu, who returned to play after several games out from a left toe injury sustained in practice, echoed her coach. “I think it’s just continuing to find what works with the unit that’s out there and it’s easier said than done when you don’t have that many practice days and opportunities to do that, but at the end of the day it’s who can execute,” she said about the current focus.
Ionescu contributed six points in Tuesday’s game.
“There’s great basketball teams that are all going to be in the playoffs,” she said. “So for us, it’s just making sure we can kind of hone in on our defense and doing the hard things and doing it for 40 minutes, because when we do that we know we are a tough team to beat.”
The Liberty’s final game of the regular season is Thursday evening in Chicago against the Sky.
“Washington prepared us in versatility, especially in the post players,” Cloud said about how their final games are preparing them for the playoffs. “Chicago prepares us a lot, especially with rebounding. They had us the last game here. They really took advantage of us on the rebounding. Luckily we have our whole team back and we have that size back just to prepare us for a Big Phoenix that we’re going to see this weekend.”
The Liberty face the Mercury for Game 1 in Phoenix on Sunday.
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