MORE: Oregon Ducks Fans Color To Wear vs. Oregon State In Autzen Stadium<\/a><\/p>\n![\"oregon]( "\\"oregon")
<\/p>\n
Jun 19, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) tries to drive past New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) during the second half at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images \/ John Jones-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
New York and Phoenix are set to play in a decisive game 3 after the Mercury evened the series at a game apiece.<\/p>\n
Leading Phoenix in the second game of the series was Ionescu\u2019s former Oregon teammate Satou Sabally. The German forward scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, four assists and four steals.<\/p>\n
Sabally is in her first season playing for the Mercury after spending the beginning of her career with the Dallas Wings. Oregon women\u2019s basketball accomplished a rare feat in 2020 when Ionescu went No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft and Sabally went No. 2.<\/p>\n
![\"oregon]( "\\"oregon")
<\/p>\n
Former Oregon Duck Sabrina Ionescu, left, jokes with her New York Liberty teammate Nyara Sabally during a practice session at Matthew Knight Arena Sunday. \/ Chris Pietsch\/The Register-Guard \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Despite both players\u2019 teams struggling to make the postseason at the beginning of their professional careers, Ionescu eventually helped a stacked Liberty squad to the franchise\u2019s first championship last season. Meanwhile, Sabally and Dallas negotiated a trade that sent her to Phoenix, where she\u2019s trying to win a championship of her own in 2025.<\/p>\n
The first opponent Phoenix would need to take down to accomplish its championship goals roster not only includes Sabally\u2019s former award-winning teammate, but also her sister, Nyara Sabally, another former Oregon Duck.<\/p>\n
![\"oregon]( "\\"oregon")
<\/p>\n
Sep 14, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) reacts between plays during the second half against the New York Liberty during game one of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs round one at PHX Arena. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-Imagn Images \/ Allan Henry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The elder Sabally sister was present for the Liberty\u2019s championship victory in 2024 to support her sister. Satou even joined Nyara on the stage during the trophy presentation ceremony.<\/p>\n
Nyara only played in the second game of the series against the Mercury and saw limited action. Ionescu has struggled shooting from the field, shooting 4-for-20 from beyond the arc and 9-for-31 overall.<\/p>\n
Even though the Mercury is the higher seed this postseason, it would still be a notable accomplishment if the team is able to take down the defending champions in the first round. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu takes the saying \u201conce a Duck, always a Duck\u201d to heart because no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-153726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}