Jonquel Jones delivers his MVP performance in the WNBA Finals to save the ice-cold Ionescu and Stewart

NEW YORK (AP) — Sabrina Ionescu's first shot hit the side of the backboard. Another blow shortly afterwards hit nothing at all.

After I made one of these most memorable shots in WNBA history To win Game 3, the All-Star guard turned ice-cold Ionescu the rest of the way.

Ionescu shot 1-for-19 from the floor on Sunday and Breanna Stewart wasn't much better, but the New York Liberty got an MVP performance from Jonquel Jones to save their two stars.

Jones finished the game with 17 points and six rebounds Liberty's 67-62 overtime win defeated the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday evening and was rewarded with the WNBA Finals Award.

“Her dominance in the paint, on the boards, on defense on the help side, anything we needed, she was there,” Stewart said. “She had to wait a while to get to this point, get to the finals and win a championship. But it was worth the wait.”

Ionescu finished the game with five points but added eight assists and seven rebounds. Stewart shot 4-for-15 and finished with 13 points and 15 boards.

“I just did everything to win,” said Ionescu during the trophy presentation. “I believed in my teammates, believed in the entire organization. It takes everyone. You don’t do this alone, and we did it in New York.”

The Liberty were building what they hoped would be their version of a title-winning superteam by bringing in Stewart from Seattle, where she was a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, and Jones from Connecticut, where she lost in the 2019 Finals Ionescu, their No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft.

They reached the WNBA Finals last year with the Liberty and had the league's best record this season, but it looked like they would fall short of the title as Ionescu and Stewart continued to fail.

Ionescu opened the game by missing her first 13 shots, giving her 15 straight misses since Game 4, before finally hitting a 3-pointer for the only time all night with 3:10 left, giving the Liberty gave a lead of 56-52.

But after Minnesota took a 60-58 lead, it looked as if the superstars' problems would finally doom the Liberty. Stewart missed two free throws with 38 seconds left, but the Liberty knocked down the rebound, only for Ionescu to miss a three-pointer and then another after New York regained possession.

The Liberty made it to overtime when Stewart hit two free throws with 5.2 seconds left in regulation. When she remembered the previous two failures, she said to herself, “No, I can't do this again, I can't do this. I have to be here.”

New York then got baskets from Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally in OT and won.

New York had hoped to avoid Game 5 altogether after Ionescu's 28-footer provided freedom an 80-77 win in Game 3. But she shot 5 to 16 inches Game 4missed all five 3-point shots and Stewart was just 5 for 20 for 11 points.

But the 6-for-6 Jones was the workhorse the Liberty needed, finishing the series with averages of 18 points and eight rebounds. That included 10 points in the first half on Sunday to keep the Liberty close, while Ionescu and Stewart combined for just Stewart's five points.

“What makes them difficult is you spend a lot of time trying to protect Sabrina and Stewie in some of these shenanigans that have led to disagreements,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “But we’ll live with some of it.”

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball