Leonie Fiebich’s First Game Back Quickly Proved How Much She ‘Unlocks’ for Liberty
Leonie Fiebich hadn’t played a game since early July when she returned to the New York Liberty’s lineup in a marquee matchup against the Indiana Fever.
New York sorely missed Fiebich, so the excitement about her return was high. Head coach Chris DeMarco even chose to disregard Fiebich’s minutes restriction when she played like she hadn’t missed a beat. Fiebich delivered in every aspect of the game. She helped lead the Liberty to a big 109-102 win with 20 points on 7-10 shooting from the field and 3-5 from deep, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal in 34 minutes. She was the Liberty’s second-leading scorer, while regularly picking up Caitlin Clark or Kelsey Mitchell full court.
It was everything the Liberty could have hoped for from Fiebich’s return, and Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Chris DeMarco were all very complimentary of her efforts in the postgame media availability.
“Leo unlocks a lot of stuff,” DeMarco said, per a video on the Liberty’s YouTube channel. “We were able to play her at the four a little bit, give Stewie a little bit of a rest. That’s important, too.”
New York is a better team with Leonie Fiebich
In 2024, Sandy Brondello made the choice to put rookie Leonie Fiebich in the starting lineup over veteran Courtney Vandersloot to surround Sabrina Ionescu with a bunch of long and versatile players on both ends of the floor. That move was one of the reasons the Liberty won their first title.
Two seasons later, with a different supporting cast and a different head coach, Fiebich is still a massive difference-maker. The Liberty are better defensively with her, as she can basically guard one through four and offers great size against guards like Mitchell and Clark. Fiebich doesn’t need the ball in her hands to make an impact, which makes her a great fit next to the big three of Ionescu, Jones, and Stewart, but she will reliably knock down shots when she gets them.
Having Fiebich back also improves the Liberty’s depth. As DeMarco said, she can fill some minutes behind Stewart for a team that doesn’t have a lot of great depth at the power forward spot. Her return to the starting lineup also means that players like Marine Johannes, Rebecca Allen, and Rebekah Gardner don’t have to bounce back and forth between the bench and the starting lineup anymore, giving DeMarco a full guard and wing rotation off the bench.
At this point, there seems to be little hope for a Satou Sabally return, but Fiebich’s return will be a massive boost as the Liberty try to climb out of the bottom half of the playoff picture or at least into a 4-5 matchup in the opening round and redeem themselves after last year’s disappointing first-round exit.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.