NEW YORK — Breanna Stewart’s three-point game with 19.7 seconds left in overtime lifted the New York Liberty to an 89-88 win over the Washington Mystics on Sunday.
Sabrina Ionescu scored 31 points and Stewart added 18 for New York, who trailed by 17 in the first quarter and eight with 2:28 left in the standings before tying the game by two seconds on a Courtney Vandersloot layup.
The teams traded leads several times in overtime before Natasha Cloud’s three-point play with 1:59 left made the score 88-86. Neither team scored until Stewart drove the pass with 19.7 seconds left, making the basket and drawing the offense.
She sank the free throw to give New York (9-3) the lead.
After a timeout, Washington (8-5) got the ball to Elena Delle Donne, whose runner bounced off the rim with just over 5 seconds left. The ball went out of bounds for Liberty, giving the Mystics one last chance. Mischa Hines Allen contested a shot with a waste of one second left and New York came out with the win.
Ariel Atkins led Washington with 24 points and Cloud added 23 and 11 assists.
The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Mystics, who lost forward Shakira Austin to a groin injury early in the fourth quarter.
Austin was injured shortly before Liberty took the sole lead. I flipped a pass near midcourt and landed in front of the Liberty seat. She remained on the court for a few minutes before being taken to the locker room.
Washington jumped New York at first, scoring the first 13 points of the game. Liberty missed its first seven shots before Betnya Laney reversed a layup with 6:01 left in the quarter. Washington extended its lead to 17 in the run-up to New York’s rally to 27-17 at the end of the quarter.
Liberty got their offense in the second quarter behind Ionescu and Lani and cut their deficit to 45-39 at halftime. Stewart missed all seven of her goal attempts in the first half. It is only the third time in her career that she has been held without a field goal in the first half.
Right before the game, Stewart was named captain of the All-Star Game. It is the second year in a row that she has held this position.
