Jones, Liberty fall in WNBA Finals as Aces repeat
- Simba French
- Oct 20, 2023
- 0
For the third time in her professional career, Bahamian professional women’s basketball player Jonquel ‘JJ’ Jones and her team fell short of lifting the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) trophy as the New York Liberty lost in a 70-69 nail-biter to the Las Vegas Aces Wednesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Aces repeated as champions, winning the best-of-five series 3-1.
Jones had an uncharacteristic night on the offensive side of the ball with just six points on 3-for-8 shooting from the field. She had a strong game on the boards and on defense with 11 rebounds, three blocked shots and a steal. She played 34 minutes.
The game went down to the wire with the Liberty needing a free throw to force overtime or a field goal to win it in the waning seconds. The Liberty got the ball with 8.8 seconds left. They went to league MVP Breanna Stewart who was double-teamed on her move to the basket. She passed the ball to Betnijah Laney who in turn found Courtney Vandersloot in the corner. Vandersloot took the shot but tossed up an air ball. Jones grabbed the ball and put it up and in but it was after the buzzer sounded and the Aces started to celebrate.
Vandersloot led the Liberty with a side-high 19 points.
It was a valiant effort by the Liberty, particularly in the final two minutes of the game as they trailed 70-64 with 1:26 left. Jones assisted Vandersloot who made a three-point shot with 1:14 left on the clock and the lead was cut to three points, 70-67. After the Aces came up empty on their next possession, the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu hit a jump shot in the paint to cut the Aces lead to one, 70-69m with 41.9 seconds left in the game.
The Aces had another opportunity to pad the lead but Jones and Stewart recovered for a big block of Wilson in the lane, setting up one final opportunity for the Liberty.
Overall, the Liberty had a tough night shooting from the field as they finished at a 36.1 percent clip for the game. The Aces were missing two starters in Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, but they rallied behind their MVP Wilson. They shot the ball at a 41.8 percent clip. The Aces controlled the glass, winning that battle 38-30. The Liberty had a tough time in the paint as the Aces scored 44 points there compared to just 24 for the Liberty.
Grand Bahama native had a solid postseason, averaging 16.8 points and 11.6 rebounds per game in 10 playoff games. Both are postseason career highs for Jones, and so is 34.7 minutes per game. She also made an average of 55 percent of her shots.
As mentioned earlier, this was Jones’ third trip to the WNBA Finals, and it’s the third time she came up short of winning the title. The first was in 2019 when she played for the Connecticut Sun. They lost that series 3-2 to the Washington Mystics. The second was in 2022 when she also played for the Sun and they lost to the Aces 3-1.
The 29-year-old had a slow start to her season but picked it up and was even named the MVP for the in-season tournament – the Commissioner’s Cup, which the Liberty won 82-63 over the Aces. For the season, Jones, the 2021 WNBA MVP, finished at 11.3 points and 8.4 rebounds per game while shooting 52.7 percent from the floor.
The Liberty finished with a 32-8 win/loss record in the league’s first 40-game season. That was good for the second seed. Before dropping the final game of the regular season against the Mystics, The Liberty was on an eight-game winning streak.
Jones and the Liberty will have to do a post-mortem on their season and postseason to see what they can improve on for the 2024 season.