The New York Liberty Women’s Basketball Team made history on Sunday in their game against the Indiana Fever when the team dropped a record-setting 44 points in the first quarter.
The previous record was set by the Chicago Sky — 42 points — in 2019.
It also marks the 15th game in franchise history where they scored 100+ points and the fourth time this season where they scored this many points.
The Liberty went on to beat Indiana in a game where point guard Betnijah Laney managed a career-high score of 22 points. Forward Jonquel Jones contributed 18 points of her own, no doubt adding to the Liberty’s red-hot start in the first half.
“Anytime we can see the ball go in the hoop or the stops, just helping momentum, it really does help a lot just throughout the entirety of the game,” said Jonquel Jones. “So just coming on that mindset and having that confidence and falling back on the work that I’ve done, so I think it really does help a lot in starting the game well."
Sabrina Ionescu made an incredible reverse layup that was a part of the Liberties spark run early in the first quarter.
At the beginning of the second quarter, New York went on an 11-3 run from the 7:55 mark of the second to the 4:44 mark of the half. Later on, Indiana answered back with a 15-5 run from the 4:31 mark of the second to the 1:27 mark of the half. Eventually, Indiana outscored New York that entire second quarter, 29-24, resulting in the Fever’s second-highest scoring quarter of the season.
Fever point guard Victoria Vivians guided the team with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting that came along with two assists. The team then went on a 20-8 run for the rest of the quarter, but still trailed the Liberty 68-46 as the second quarter came to an end.
In the third quarter, Indiana followed through with an 8-0 run that had sparked from the 4:44 mark until 3:26 left in the quarter.
Defensive adjustment by Indiana in the third quarter is what slowed down New York’s offensive pace. They were able to hold them to an 8-of-18 shooting (44.4%) from the court. New York was just held to 19 points for the entire third quarter. Indiana still wasn’t able to overcome that huge deficit that was in front of them despite showing some positives in the third quarter.
They were able to go on another huge 11-3 run from the 6:49 mark of the fourth quarter to the 1:41 remaining of the game. Sabrina Ionescu would make the final layup shot for New York with 1:24 remaining, wrapping up their scoring.
New York finished the game shooting 54% from the field while also managing to hit 17 of 34 3s (50%). They also did manage to hit 71% from the free throw line while going 10-14.
The Liberty will look to continue to bring their winning momentum on Tuesday versus the Seattle Storm.
