Liberty guard Marine Fauthoux, who began the season on a developmental contract, was counting down each game she’d be allowed to play as she approached the 12-game limit.

First, the 25-year-old French rookie began her tenure focused on a lengthy rehab for an ACL tear. Then, Fauthoux became important at her job — becoming a mainstay in the offense as ex-teammate Betnijah Laney-Hamilton fell out of the rotation and the team dealt with multiple injuries.

Just like that, she approached double-digits games played without inking a standard WNBA contract.

“At the beginning it was easy for me because I was like on my rehab situation. So I was like ‘OK I will have opportunity [an] to be back on the court,’” she said before realizing “I have two more games and I’m done. So it was kind of not stressful, but I was in the situation of like ‘What are we doing?’

“So it was hard.”

Well, Fauthoux’s situation became much easier after the Liberty signed her to a multi-year deal on Thursday. Her signing was a corresponding move to Laney-Hamilton, who the Washington Mystics claimed on waivers Sunday, being released.

Fauthoux would’ve been allowed to play just one more game under a developmental contract, which is a new deal introduced under the 2026 collective bargaining agreement that allows each team to sign up to two players outside of its 12-player roster.

Fauthoux played in Wednesday’s win over the Seattle Storm, bringing her to 11 games played for the season. After a developmental player plays 12 games, the current team has rights to convert that player to a standard deal. If not, other WNBA teams have the option to sign that player.

Fauthoux said Saturday that she’s “really happy” to stay with the Liberty, which she preferred.

The option for Fauthoux to agree to terms on a multi-year deal with Liberty was a no-brainer in her mind.

The deal ensures the guard stays as a key component on first-year head coach Chris DeMarco’s bench.

“She plays so hard. She plays so hard, but she does a lot of things,” DeMarco said of Fathoux, who entered Sunday averaging 4.5 points on a 40.5% clip, 2.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 14.5 minutes per game.

“Like you can’t be at a bar hanging out and the game’s going on and be like, ‘Fauthoux is a good player.’ You have to actually watch the game and watch like the little things that she does. On defense, she’s in a shell. She’s early when they hit the pocket. Offensively, she sets somebody up in pick and roll — defense [is] out of position. She races the ball. Two people have to come over. She finds shooters. Like she does all these little things that really help winning in the end, and that’s what you know we love out of basketball players.”