Liberty reach second straight WNBA Finals with revenge win over Aces

There will be a new WNBA champion in 2024.

The long-awaited revenge has been achieved, and the Liberty will return to Barclays Center for the reason they want. 

A year later, a round earlier, and in a not-so-pretty Game 4, the Liberty have earned their revenge against the Aces, who took them down in four games in the 2023 WNBA Finals, and they punched their ticket to a second straight Finals after a 76-62 win over Las Vegas at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Entering the fourth quarter, the Liberty only led by three points and two of their five starters — Leonie Fiebich and Jonquel Jones — were tagged with four fouls each.

Courtney Vandersloot was also carrying three.

However, they were able to keep their composure in the final quarter after a turnover-and-foul-heavy game, and they committed no turnovers to tarnish their lead in the final 10 minutes.

The Liberty opened the final quarter making their opening two shots, including a drive from Sabrina Ionescu.

The star guard then went on to make her fifth 3-pointer of the game to put the Liberty on a 7-0 run and for their largest lead of the game (11 points).

Buckets followed from Jones beyond the arc and Fiebich in the paint and from the charity stripe, carrying the Liberty to victory. 

The Liberty had only lost back-to-back games once this whole season and kept that record alive Sunday.

A key for New York was Ionescu’s bounce-back after being shut down to just four points in Game 3 by the Aces.

She finished with 22 points, shooting 5-for-8 from beyond the arc, and Breanna Stewart followed with 19 points and 14 rebounds. 

They were able to hold the Aces to just 32 percent shooting with A’ja Wilson still managing to score 19 points and grab 10 rebounds.