Ionescu's Night of Milestones Sends Liberty Into WNBA Break

BROOKLYN-Set to take a month away from Barclays Center thanks to her participton in both the WNBA All-Star Game and the Summer Olympics, Sabrina Ionescu made sure that New York Liberty fans had something to remember her by.

A night of Ionescu milestones set the tone for the Liberty's final endeavor before the WNBA takes a month-long break, as she paced an 82-74 victory in Brooklyn over the Connecticut Sun. With the win, the Liberty (21-4) solidified their standing atop the WNBA leaderboard, moving 2.5 games ahead of runner-up Connecticut and securing the head-to-head tiebreaker with their third win in as many meetings.

Ionescu was the undisputed star of the night taking over for the absent Betniah Laney-Hamilton (knee) and Breanna Stewart (rest).

The point guard scored 30 points for the 13th time in her Liberty career to set a new record (breaking a tie with Cappie Pondexter) and she's also just the fourth New Yorker to reach 20 in five straight games (Laney-Hamilton, Pondexter, Tina Charles). Ionescu opened scoring with a three-pointer, becoming just the third in WNBA history to have one in 50 consecutive games. A third of her points came from a perfect 10-of-10 mark from the foul line, becoming the third bearer of seafoam to have a perfect free throw shooting night with a minimum of 10 tries.

New York needed all that and then some to stave off the Sun, though they never let their New England-based visitors take the lead despite a few fourth quarter ties. Familiar means awaited this win, as the Liberty outscored Connecticut 19-11 in the final period, including 8-2 in the paint (they were -20 in the interior over the first three frames).

The Sun (18-6) were led by 17 points from Brionna Jones while Alyssa Thomas had 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting before resting the fourth quarter.

With the Olympics looming, the league-leading Liberty now have nearly a full month off before returning to action in seafoam. Ionescu, Stewart, and Jonquel Jones will each partake in Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game between the Association standouts and the United States national team (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC) before New York reconvenes for Aug. 15 for a tilt in Los Angeles.

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