Stewart leads New York to 81-75 win over Atlanta Dream

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart had 22 points and 12 rebounds to help the New York Liberty beat the Atlanta Dream 81-75 on Sunday.

New York, which trailed by 16 points in the first half, led 60-59 entering the fourth quarter. Liberty (16-3) scored the first 10 points of the period, starting with a free throw by Stewart. The Dream, coming off a win at Connecticut on Friday night, cut the deficit to 70-67 before back-to-back 3-pointers by Sabrina Ionescu and Leonie Fiebich put the game away.

“We continued to compete, playing our style of basketball,” Stewart said of recovering from a slow start to the season. “We had some off days that we weren’t used to and we had to get back into the rhythm.”

New York, which had not played since losing to Minnesota in the Commissioners’ Cup final on Tuesday, also got 18 points from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.

Stewart scored her 5,000th career point, becoming the fastest player to reach that milestone by doing so in her 242nd game. Diana Taurasi, the all-time leading scorer in WNBA history, did it in 243.

Allisha Gray scored 24 points and Tina Charles added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Dream (7-10). Atlanta was still without Rhyne Howard (ankle) and Aerial Powers (leg) because of injuries.

“At some point, we’ll be able to put it all back together, hopefully, when everybody’s back to full health,” Atlanta coach Tanisha Wright said. “Tonight, our team played hard, they were tired. When you’re tired, it’s hard to go on and do the things you’re supposed to do because you let the fatigue take over. I don’t blame them for that.”

It was a homecoming for Charles, who grew up in New York and played for the Liberty from 2014 to 2019. She received a warm ovation from the crowd when she was introduced before the game.

New York returned Courtney Vandersloot to the starting lineup for the first time since spending a few weeks with her mother before she died of cancer. The guard left the team earlier this month and then played his first game since June 4 in the Commissioners Cup final on Tuesday.

The Liberty trailed 31-15 early in the second quarter and trailed by 14 points with 1:40 left in the half before Stewart and Vandersloot pulled it to 41-36 at the break. Stewart missed six of his first seven shots before finishing by making four of his last five to finish the half with 12 points.

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