Jonquel Jones, Liberty Complete Comeback vs. Caitlin Clark, Fever
Amidst rising temperatures and a swelling scoreboard, the New York Liberty managed to find relief from the Indiana Fever.
Clinching free throws from Sabrina Ionescu and a splendid second half from Jonquel Jones provided euphoria at the end of a rollercoaster showing against Indiana, one that ended with the Liberty on top by a 90-88 final.
Sweeping a mini-Midwestern road trip, one that also featured Thursday's one-sided win over Chicago, was hardly easy despite going up by as much as 15 in the opening half: spurred on by double-doubles for Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, the Liberty (3-0) staged a furious fourth quarter rally, one that featured 14 points from Jones and Natasha Cloud's denial of a potential winner from the sophomore sensation Clark.
Despite early momentum generated by the Boston/Clark connection (six of Boston's eight sinks from the field in the first half came from the hands of 2024's top pick), New York got the ball rolling with a balanced scoring effort that saw four women reach double-figures before halftime.
Ionescu had 15 while moving into fourth place on the Liberty's all-time scoring list (passing current Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon) while Cloud had 10 tallies, five assists, three steals, and was a game-best plus-19 on the scoreboard.
But the Fever struck back in style, almost directly flipping the script after trailing by seven at intermission. Imitating the Liberty's balanced effort, Indiana enjoyed perfect 3-of-3 showings from Boston and Kelsey Mitchell in the third, ending a 30-13 period on a 23-7 run over the last six-plus minutes. Clark closed things in style, earning a successful four-point play before beating the buzzer with another triple, stopping a streak of a dozen consecutive misses.
Back-to-back easy doubles for former New Yorker Natasha Howard led to a 12-point Fever lead and a Liberty timeout. That's when Jones took the stage for her one woman show, needing less than four minutes to stage a 16-2 run that saw her account for all but two of the points en route to an 84-82 lead just past the halfway mark. The outlier couple came on a Cloud steal from Howard, which became a Breanna Stewart fastbreak.
From there, neither team led by more than two the rest of the way, with each team's stars exchanging numerical blows. The fateful trip to the foul line provided redemption for Ionescu, who had missed two prior attempts at a go-ahead triple. Pushed into the Liberty end by their reset timeout, Indiana found Clark at the top of the key before Cloud left one last impression on the proceedings.
New York didn't get out of Saturday's game completely unscathed: plagued by two early fouls, Leonie Fiebich endured a shin injury during an early second period collision with Lexie Hull. Fiebich was replaced by Kennedy Burke when starting lineups were fully re-inserted for the second half.
The Liberty will be back in Indianapolis on June 14. In the meantime, they'll return home on Tuesday to host a doubleheader against the expansion Golden State Valkyries (7 p.m. ET, WWOR).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.