UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Liberty coach Chris DeMarco was worried about Monday’s game against the last-place Connecticut Sun.
His concern grew when Jonquel Jones became a late scratch after falling ill between warmups and tipoff.
The Liberty entered Monday on a four-game winning streak and were suddenly without two stars as Sabrina Ionescu is still nursing a sore back.
Meanwhile, the Sun are a physical, young team, with players trying to prove they have staying power in the WNBA. Connecticut had the home-court advantage.
DeMarco has been in this situation before. He sensed Monday had the makings of a trap game.
It was a battle for most of the two-plus hours. But the Liberty managed to pull out an 89-80 win, extending their winning streak to five games.
“It took a lot of toughness,” said Breanna Stewart, who led the way with 28 points and nine rebounds. “Next-woman mentality, especially when you’re playing a team like Connecticut. They’re hungry for their wins… I think that we handled the punches pretty well, very long game, very, very choppy, but we just continue to play through it.”
DeMarco entrusted Han Xu with Jones’ starting spot. She found out she was going to make her first career start about 30 minutes before the game.
DeMarco understood he was putting Han and Spanish rookie Raquel Carrera in tough spots.
Carrera hadn’t even logged four minutes of action yet this season. But with Jones out, the Liberty needed another post player, and she answered the call.
New York did enough to win. It wasn’t easy, though that seems to be a trend with the Liberty this season.
They committed 19 turnovers, though the Sun failed to make New York pay for their miscues.
The Liberty won with their grittiness. They outrebounded the Sun 42-28. They got to the free-throw line 29 times and held the Sun to 23.1 percent (3-for-13) from behind the arc.
DeMarco made sure to specifically give Han and Carrera props after the game.
Han scored seven of her 14 points in the fourth quarter and had six rebounds. The Liberty outscored the Sun by 13 points when Han was on the court.
“I try my best,” Han said. “The coaches always believe me… I know it’s hard because they have a lot of good players here. But we do a good job together.”
Carrera has plenty of room to grow, but she had a successful night, contributing seven points and five rebounds in a career-high 13 minutes.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton gave the Liberty some defensive juice in her minutes. She finished with 11 points and five rebounds off the bench.
The Liberty are more than a quarter of the way through the 44-game regular season. They’ve yet to play a game at full strength and have navigated a lot of ups and downs. Some of those dips were self-inflicted. Others were because key players were unavailable.
Covering the Liberty like never before
Sign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.
Thank you
And yet, they’re 8-4 and sitting in fifth place in the tight WNBA standings.
“We’ve been through this… having up-and-down type of situations with rosters,” Stewart said, “but keeping the main thing the main thing, continue to play through it and get the win.”
“I love this team,” DeMarco said. “We’re growing together, we’re building together and it’s just been like it seems like every game is something different, you know? Somebody’s out, they’re in, we just found a way to get wins. So yeah, really proud of the group.”
