WNBA Finals: New York Liberty defeats Minnesota Lynx in OT to win first title

NEW YORK (AP) — As confetti fell and Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York” boomed through the arena, the New York Liberty celebrated the end of a long odyssey.

The team that consistently underperformed from its days at Madison Square Garden to detours to Radio City Music Hall and the Westchester County Center finally found its way to the top.

Actually start spreading the word: After a 67-62 overtime win over Minnesota in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday night, there is finally a pro basketball champion in New York again.

“I've been manifesting this moment for a while. There’s no feeling like it,” said Breanna Stewart. “Thanks to Minnesota, they gave us a tough series. The fans were great everywhere we went. It's an incredible feeling to bring a championship to New York for the first time in franchise history. I can't wait to continue celebrating with the city. It’s going to be crazy.”

Jonquel Jones scored 17 points to lead New York, which was one of the league's original franchises. The Liberty have reached the WNBA finals five times and lost each time. including last season. This time they were not deterred, although it took another five minutes.

While stars Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggled on offense, other players stepped up. Leonie Fiebich started OT with a 3-pointer, and then Nyara Sabally, who finished with 13 points, had a layup steal that made it 65-60 and sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy.

“Whoever scores first in overtime usually wins,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said.

Minnesota didn't score in OT until Kayla McBride made two free throws with 1:51 left. The Lynx missed all six of their field goal attempts in overtime. After Ionescu missed a shot with 21 seconds left, her 18th miss in 19 shot attempts, the Lynx had one last chance, but Bridget Carleton missed a three-pointer with 16 seconds left.

Stewart, who missed a free throw with 0.8 seconds left at the end of regulation in game 1, With 10.1 seconds left in overtime, he shot two free throws to secure the win.

As the final seconds ticked down, players hugged each other and streamers fell from the rafters at Barclays Center. Stewart and Jones hugged. The two award-winning free agent signings two years ago helped this team win its first title.

New York was down two seconds in regulation when Stewart was fouled with 5.2 seconds left. After a detailed video review, Stewart calmly shot two free throws and tied the game at 60. Minnesota challenged the foul and coach Cheryl Reeve did after the game still questioned itShe said the title was stolen from her team.

McBride, who finished with 21 points, had an open chance for a 3, but it fell off the rim and the game went to OT.

Many of the former Liberty greats were in the audience, including Teresa Weatherspoon, who made a half-court heave in the 1999 WNBA Finals to force a decisive Game 3 that year. Until this year, that was the last time New York had a chance to play in a championship-winning game.

Jones, who was the only Liberty player to previously play in a Game 5 when she was at Connecticut in 2019, received the MVP award.

“I could never have dreamed of this. You know how many times I've been rejected. There were delays. I’m so happy to be doing it here,” she said.

Napheesa Collier scored 22 points to lead Minnesota before being fouled with 13 seconds left in stoppage time.

The Lynx were attempting to win their record fifth WNBA title, breaking a tie with the Seattle Storm and Houston Comets. Minnesota won four titles from 2011 to 2017 behind the core group of Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore. That was the team's last appearance in the WNBA Finals until this year.

“Congratulations to the Liberty on their first championship,” Reeve said. “It took them 28 years to do this, congratulations to them. We were so close to our fifth goal that it just didn’t work out.”

This is the first time since 2019 that the WNBA Finals will go the distance. Since the league switched to a best-of-five format in 2005, seven other series have gone to a Game 5, and the home team had won five of those previous contests, including in 2019.

This series was a fitting end to a record season for the league. All five games came down to the last few possessions, including two overtime games and one Shot at the last secondwhich have led to record viewing figures.

The first three games averaged over a million viewers each, with viewership increasing with each contest. They also had large influxes of visitors.

Liberty fan Spike Lee was on the sidelines for over an hour before the game, chatting with the media while wearing his Ionescu jersey. After Ionescu finished warming up before the game, the two briefly exchanged words and hugged each other. Lee was part of a sellout crowd of 18,090 that helped this series set both the overall attendance record for a WNBA Finals and average attendance.

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