As of Monday, September 18, 2023
JONQUEL Jones
#By TENAJH SWEETING
#Tribune Sports Reporter
#tsweeting@tribunemedia.net
#GRAND Bahamian Jonquel Jones put up a dominant double double performance to propel the New York Liberty to a game one win over the Washington Mystics.
#The leading Eastern Conference team dropped the seventh-seeded Mystics 90-75 to claim the first win of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) best-of-three playoff series.
#The efforts of Jones and the Liberty’s guard Sabrina Ionescu meshed perfectly to lead New York to their first home playoff win since 2015 at the Barclays Center.
#The former WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) charged her way to 20 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and two blocks in her Liberty playoff debut.
#Despite turning in a strong performance, Jones’ teammate Ionescu stole the show in the Big Apple after putting up an historic franchise postseason record of seven made three-pointers in the win.
#To start the opening round of the WNBA playoffs, the Mystics came out on top in the first period outscoring the Liberty 29-23. However, in the second period, to lead into halftime, the stellar New York team outscored the 19-21 (win/loss record) Mystics 23-13 to regain control ahead of the intermission. Jones’ team led 46-42 to go into the locker rooms for halftime.
#Following the break, Ionescu was on fire for New York in front of a packed crowd of 8,789 on their home court. The guard scored 20 of her game-high 29 points in the second half and canned six of her seven three-pointers after the break to cement a new playoff record.
#Jones’ teammate also pulled down six boards and dished out two dimes.
#The forward and guard offensive combo was essential to the Liberty’s latest win as the 2023 Associated Press Player of the Year Breanna Stewart had a tough game. She collected a mere 10 points on 3/16 shooting and was unable to connect on any of her four three-point attempts.
#The Liberty jumped out to a 60-50 lead in the third period at the 3:27 mark following a pair of free throws made by Jones.
#On the night the team was impressive at the charity stripe, converting 85.7 per cent of their 14 free throw attempts in the game one win.
#One of New York’s best sporting teams currently outscored the Mystics 23-15 in the quarter.
#Despite the Mystics trimming the Liberty lead down to six in the fourth quarter, Ionescu sapped their momentum after nailing consecutive shots from deep.
#New York shot 44 per cent from the field in the game and 35.3 per cent from behind the arc.
#The team cleaned the boards by outrebounding the Mystics 43 to 37.
#Myisha Hines-Allen notched a playoff career-high 21 points for the Mystics in the loss.
#The Liberty will look to bring out the brooms to complete the sweep against the Mystics at 7pm on Tuesday.