Liberty's Simultaneous Swat Saves Defensive Day
BROOKLYN — Pac-12 After Dark claimed one more victim in absentia on Monday night. The fact it came at a New York Liberty gamed staged on the opposite coast perhaps made it even more perfect for the undead conference of champions.
UCLA alumna Kennedy Burke and ex-Oregon Duck Sabrina Ionescu capped a rollercoaster showing for the Liberty at Barclays Center, as their defensive return proved to be the difference in an 81-79 victory over the pesky Connecticut Sun. That allowed New York (23-15) to start the post-Breanna Stewart injury era off on the right note, even if its acquiring was far from easy.
"Sab passed it to me, and I probably should have just drove baseline or just held it, but I made a dumb decision," Stewart said of her turnover that forced Burke and Stewart to step up defensively. "But KB and Sab had my back. They made an awesome play."
New York Liberty win a thriller 81-79 over the Connecticut Sun!
— E.K. Johnson (@CoalitionHoops) August 26, 2025
Leila Lacan got an open court steal with a chance to tie the game with a layup.
Did she get fouled or was it great defense by Sabrina Ionescu? #WNBA pic.twitter.com/YLlz8zhXSg
Up two in the final stages of a back-and-forth game with the shot clock turned off, the Liberty's chance to run out the clock went by the wayside when a Stewart pass was intercepted by Leila Lacan.
Connecticut's French freshman sensation attempted to go for a backbreaking coast-to-coast double that would've forced overtime but Burke and Ionescu's simultaneously swat bounced the ball off off Lacan's thigh before it went out of bounds. Needing to kill but two seconds to secure the win, the Liberty successful did to so to avoid another upset loss at the hands of the eliminated Sun.
"It happened quick, so [I was] doing what I can to just try and kind of get a hand on the ball and disrupt a wide open layup," Ionescu, who came back from a one-game absence from a foot injury, said. "I'm glad [Burke] kind of came in from the other side as well and we were both able to kind of deflect it at the same time and just make it really difficult for her to get a shot up and did it without fouling, which I think was huge for us."
"All I knew was that I just had to run my butt back on defense, because Lacan, she was coming fast," Burke recalled. "I was like, okay, try to get a stop, and I was lucky to pull it off, even though I had no contact with her, it just went off her leg, and it was just pure luck."
The block thus officially goes down as Ionescu's, which tied her career high of 16 set in her first full season of 2021. Burke is willing to let her have it—for a tasty price.
"I don't think dinner, [but] maybe like a bag of Hot Fries or something," Burke said with a smile. "Or like some ice cream."
Such a collaboration perhaps hardly shocked deep-rooted historians of the game, who know that Burke and Ionescu's shared endeavors date beyond Brooklyn: last year's WNBA championship run was not the first time that Burke and Ionescu earned new jewelry together, as they previously took gold in the FIBA U-17 World Championship back in 2014.
Back then, the world was ready for the greatness of Ionescu, who doubled down on the hype by becoming college basketball's triple-double queen before the Liberty won the lottery sweepstakes for her services in 2020.
Burke, who gained WNBA entry a year before Ionescu in 2019, was quietly chosen in the second round but has since established herself as a successful role player in winning programs. She's now an established threat in the New York rotation after playing just two minutes in the WNBA Finals and her duties included an appearance in Monday's starting five with Natasha Cloud ailing.
That drew the admiration of Ionescu, who was pleased that the daring defensive dramatics gave her a chance to reflect on her relationship with Burke, her fellow Californian.
"To be able to see her growth this year is nothing short of amazing, [considering] the the role that she had last year and being able to see how she's just grown year after year, and how she's just continued to help us in so many different ways," Ionescu said. "I've known her for such a long time, from when we were young and then playing against her when she was at UCLA. I'm obviously super happy to be kind of like on the same side now, and continuing to build our chemistry on and off the court."
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.