NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart scored 36 points and the New York Liberty beat Minnesota 99-86 on Friday night, spoiling Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve’s first attempt to become the WNBA’s career wins leader.
Reeve is tied with Mike Thibault at 379 regular-season victories. Her next chance will be Monday night when the Lynx host Chicago.
New York (13-8), which won the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup on Tuesday, wasn’t about to let history occur on Friday night.
Stewart got the team going early then Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu took over. Jones finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds and Ionescu had 17 points.
Minnesota (15-5) led 47-46 with 3:32 left in the half before the Liberty closed the second quarter on a 13-2 run. Jones got it started with a three-point play and Pauline Astier closed it with a running layup just before the entertaining first half ended with New York up 59-49. Stewart had 16 of her 18 points in the first half in the opening quarter.
The Liberty put the game away with an early 7-3 run in the fourth that was capped by Jones’ 3-pointer which made it 85-68. The Lynx could only get within 12 the rest of the way.
Kayla McBride led Minnesota with 18 points and Courtney Williams added 16.
Las Vegas (15-5), which was without A’ja Wilson (right leg) for a second straight game, scored 10 straight points in overtime to secure the 500th win in franchise history.
Las Vegas had a successful challenge with 1:08 remaining in overtime to take away a Chicago basket that would have pulled the Sky within two points. Then, Gray made a step-back jumper from the free-throw line to extend the Aces’ lead to 94-88 with 48 seconds left.
Gray added another jumper from near the same spot at 17.1 to make it 96-88.
Gray finished with 18 points and six assists for Las Vegas. Jewell Loyd added 19 points and Jackie Young had 16 points. Smith went 11 of 14 from the field and 7 of 10 at the free-throw line
Skylar Diggins led Chicago (6-14) with 19 points and Kamilla Cardoso had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Natasha Cloud added 15 points, and Courtney Vandersloot and Azura Stevens each scored 11.
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