Liberty rallies for comeback win over Atlanta

Liberty’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder was back in her hometown Sunday with her Atlanta Dream team at Barclays Center. Tina Charles seemed excited about what had become of her former team.

“I think every league is always great when New York teams do well,” Charles said before the game. “It’s always a lot more exciting.” For the Liberty, with Jonquel Jones and Sabrina (Ionescu) thriving, you add a vet like (Courtney Vandersloot), I’m very excited for them and what they’re going to do this season. I’m still a fan from afar.

The 35-year-old Queens native, who is in her first season with her fourth team since the Liberty traded her in April 2020 after a six-season run, certainly didn’t see the Liberty at its best up close for much of the first half.

They were in a 16-point hole early in the second quarter and still down 14 at the end of the period. But the Liberty cut their problem to five at halftime, overtook Atlanta in the third and cruised to an 81-75 victory.

So they were able to bounce back from Tuesday night’s loss to Minnesota in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. It was their third win in three games against Atlanta and made them 16-3.

Breanna Stewart (22 points, 12 rebounds) and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (18 points, six assists, five rebounds) contributed to the victory, as did Leonie Fiebich with 12 points coming off the bench, including nine in the fourth period.

The Dream were coming off a 78-74 victory Friday night at Connecticut, second behind the Liberty in the overall WNBA standings.

“It’s definitely a big confidence booster,” said Atlanta coach Tanisha Wright, who was Charles’ teammate with the Liberty.

But Atlanta failed to make it two games in a row and fell to 7-10. Allisha Gray led the Dream with 24 points. Charles had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Liberty’s lead was just one going into the fourth. Then they opened the scoring with an 11-0 run.

Stewart made a free throw. Fiebich scored a layup on a pass from Jones, made a quick steal, missed a layup, grabbed the rebound and scored again. Ionescu followed with a basket from close range. And Jones followed with an open three right away, and it was 70-59.

After the Dream cut the score to 70-67, Ionescu and Fiebich responded with three-pointers for a nine-point lead. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus scored a basket for Atlanta, but Laney-Hamilton responded with three points for a 79-69 advantage with 2:33 remaining. The score was no closer than the final margin.

The home team fell behind in the second minute of the match and did not regain the lead until Laney-Hamilton kicked a corner three with three minutes left in the third quarter when they took the lead. ‘advantage 44-43.

It was the start of a 13-2 run. Stewart capped it with a three to give the Liberty a seven-game lead.

But they couldn’t break free. Atlanta held its lead to 60-59 after three.

The Liberty didn’t do much good early on. They fell behind by 14 points at the end of the first quarter and trailed 24-13 entering the second.

At that point, the Dream had shot 11 of 18. The Liberty had shot 5 of 18. Atlanta had outscored them 16-8 in the paint and 12-4 in rebounds.

When Gray made a three-and-out at 2:32 of the second quarter, the Dream’s lead had grown to 16 at 31-15. Stewart scored five in an ensuing 8-0 run to cut the lead in half.

The score, however, jumped to 14 with just 1:40 left in the period. The Liberty then responded with a 9-0 run late in the match. Vandersloot’s three-pointer cut the deficit to 41-36 at halftime.

The rally was underway.

The Liberty will now have their rematch against Minnesota on Tuesday night at Barclays, a game that will count for the standings. The Liberty lost 94-89 in the Commissioner’s Cup final, their second loss to the Lynx in two attempts.

“We had 14 careless turnovers, so (it’s) pretty tough to win against an elite team like that,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said.

It was also difficult with Jones limited to three points. She only has seven in the two games against the Lynx.

“Maybe it’s not a game where she’s going to score a lot of points, but she should allow someone else to score a lot of points,” Brondello said. “… Minnesota is an elite defensive team. If you watch them play, no other team plays like that with their scrambling, their rotation. It’s pretty impressive because they don’t stop.”

“So it’s about not allowing them to speed us up. So we worked a lot (Friday) on our spaces, our cuts and our screens and where we can exploit them in that regard. But it’s still about making shots, but don’t give the ball away.”