New York Liberty defeated Seattle Storm 84-76, stopping Storm from clinching a playoff spot on Sep. 5. After the Liberty clinched the playoff spot, there was a new fire within them in the game. Within the first quarter, the Liberty wasted no time getting on board with their guard, with Natasha Cloud’s reverse layup starting the game with 2-0.
Throughout this quarter, there were many answers and received plays that occurred during the 8:33 minutes. Breanna Stewart, Liberty’s power forward, hit a three-pointer to make the game 5-2. After this, the score remained the same until 6:32 minutes when Leonie Fiebich hit a jump shot to make the game 8-6.
The Liberty continued adding to the score when Jonquel Jones made a running layup, making the score 10-6. But it didn’t take long for Seattle’s Nneka Ogwumike to make a jump shot, bringing the game to 10-8.
Throughout this quarter, there were many blocks and scoreless shots until Stewart added two with a layup. The game continued to go back and forth until the end of the quarter, ending with Liberty leading 22-16.
This game was tightly competitive until the second quarter, when Storm gained momentum, taking their first lead of the game due to the Liberty making errors. Liberty’s loss of fight started to show, as they missed layups and jump shots and became sloppy.
It wasn’t until the end of the quarter that Liberty finally caught up, ending the quarter 39-47. During the third quarter, the competitive back-and-forth return included a play when Seattle forward Ezi Magbegor blocked a layup from Fiebich. Seattle took the ball down the court, and with a pass from Gabby Williams to Magbegor, scored a layup, making the score 45-49. Throughout the game, every time Seattle scored, the Liberty responded. The end of the quarter resulted in 59-60 with the Liberty trailing by one.
By the fourth quarter, Stewart scored 11 points against Seattle and continued to add more. After having the lead, the fire was burning out for Seattle. In the final seconds of the game, Stewart made two free throws, resulting in a final score of 87-76.
Stewart ended the game with 24 points. Following Liberty’s win, Seattle needs to win its last regular-season game to have a playoff spot.
