In the New York Liberty\u2019s 89-80 victory over the Connecticut Sun on Monday night, the top three scorers were all former UConn players. Breanna Stewart posted a game-high 28 points while Aaliyah Edwards and Olivia Nelson-Ododa each recorded a season-best 15 points apiece.<\/p>\n
Stewart has been a force during the month of June, averaging 25.7 points across three games \u2014 the best such stretch of her season so far. But after making just 11 of her first 30 shots in the month, she had a far more efficient day against the Sun, hitting 9-17 from the field (52.9 percent) while going a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line. Stewart also added in nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that Stewie is one of the best players of the world, we know that we cannot limit her to zero points,\u201d Sun coach Rachid Meziane said postgame. \u201cBut she scored a lot of tough shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberty came in short on star power with Jonquel Jones (illness) and Sabrina Ionescu (back) both sidelined. Stewart carried the scoring load in their place, finishing with twice as many points as her next closest teammate (Han Xu, 14 points). Only two other players reached double-figures for New York. Stewart also logged 34 minutes, making her the only member of the Liberty to surpass the 30-minute mark.<\/p>\n
On the other side, the Sun were also shorthanded going into Monday\u2019s contest. Brittney Griner (rib) and Aneesah Morrow (leg) both missed out, though Edwards returned after sitting out the previous four games with a concussion. She stepped back into the starting lineup while Nelson-Ododa also earned her second start of the season.<\/p>\n
Together, the all-UConn frontcourt did everything they could to knock off the Liberty, who beat the Sun by 31 in the season opener.<\/p>\n
Nelson-Ododa started strong with three quick points but then went silent. She didn\u2019t find the basket at all between the 8:14 mark of the opening quarter and the 2:24 mark of the third. Then Nelson-Ododa got hot, piling up six points by the end of the frame. She added six more in the fourth, finishing a perfect 6-6 from the field. Nelson-Ododa also reeled in eight rebounds on the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe played a great game,\u201d Meziane said. \u201cWith BG\u2019s absence, she has to take more responsibility\u2026 I like how she read the game and how we found her in some post-up situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Edwards, she struggled to finish at the rim at times with a 6-15 performance from the floor, but helped spark the comeback bid in the final frame. Seven of her 15 points came in the final 10 minutes, highlighted by an and-one with 6:51 remaining that cut the gap back to single-digits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just seeing Liv get all these and-ones, and I\u2019m like, \u2018You know what? I\u2019m here for one.\u2018 So it really inspired me to get one,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n
The third-year forward didn\u2019t just set a new season-high, it was the most points she\u2019d scored as a member of the Sun. It was tied for the third-best scoring output of her career as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s never playing without that energy. It\u2019s something that she will bring every single night. I like the way she played because she\u2019s never cheating, she\u2019s trying to give everything, put everything on the floor,\u201d Meziane said about Edwards.<\/p>\n
Edwards and Nelson-Ododa combined for 37.5 percent of the Sun\u2019s entire scoring output, but increased that number to 48.9 percent (22 of 45) in the second half. They also chipped in elsewhere as Nelson-Ododa paced the squad with eight rebounds while Edwards led the way with three steals.<\/p>\n
Connecticut trailed by as many as 13 in the second half but rallied in the fourth quarter and pulled within six points on a handful of occasions. However, the Sun couldn\u2019t get it any closer than that until 45 seconds remained, when Edwards drilled a pair of free throws to cut the gap down to five. But from there, Stewart grabbed a pair of offensive boards and finished a put-back to push the lead back to seven with 24 seconds left, which slammed the door on Connecticut\u2019s comeback hopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the New York Liberty\u2019s 89-80 victory over the Connecticut Sun on Monday night, the top three scorers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,88617],"class_list":["post-260736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-uconn-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}