SI

Sabrina Ionescu Shared How Steph Curry Motivated Her for WNBA Three-Point Contest Win

Ionescu hit the "night night" celebration with her new trophy.

Blake Silverman

Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry competed in a three-point challenge in Indianapolis last year
Sabrina Ionescu and Steph Curry competed in a three-point challenge in Indianapolis last year / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
In this story:

New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu captured her second WNBA three-point contest victory Friday night in Indianapolis. She scored 30 points in the final round, which is tied for the second most in WNBA three-point contest history—behind only herself, when she set the record with 37 in her 2023 win.

She didn't compete in the WNBA three-point contest last year, but she did compete in another shootout: the challenge against Steph Curry, which also happened to be in Indianapolis, during the '24 NBA All-Star weekend.

Curry came out on top during that challenge, when he scored 29 points in the final round to edge out Ionescu's 26. But the narrow defeat gave the Liberty star some extra motivation to get the job done in the same city on Friday night.

"It means everything. The last time I was here in Indy against Steph, I lost," she said, holding her new trophy on the ESPN broadcast. "So I feel like I had to come back and redeem myself."

She even had to call the NBA's all-time leader in threes after the win.

"I called Steph after and was showing the trophy off because last time he beat me when we were here in Indy," Ionescu said, via Deyscha Smith of The Next.

And of course she hit Curry's signature "night night" celebration, too:

She beat Allisha Gray, last year's three-point champion, in the final, where the Dream guard finished with 22. Both Ionescu and Gray scored 25 in the first round to advance to the finals. Ionescu is now just the second WNBA player to win multiple three-point contests, joining four-time winner Allie Quigley.

Her Liberty teammate Natasha Cloud won the skills challenge earlier in the night for a clean New York sweep. Now, Ionescu has the All-Star Game in front of her on Saturday, where she will compete against her New York co-star, Breanna Stewart.

More WNBA on Sports Illustrated

feed

Published
Blake Silverman
BLAKE SILVERMAN

Blake Silverman is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, he covered the WNBA, NBA, G League and college basketball for numerous sites, including Winsidr, SB Nation's Detroit Bad Boys and A10Talk. He graduated from Michigan State University before receiving a master's in sports journalism from St. Bonaventure University. Outside of work, he's probably binging the latest Netflix documentary, at a yoga studio or enjoying everything Detroit sports. A lifelong Michigander, he lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, young son and their personal petting zoo of two cats and a dog.

Home/WNBA