After the first quarter of the New York Liberty’s Friday night’s road contest against the Washington Mystics, Leonie Fiebich was asked for the keys to the game: “Body language. Not showing that we’re tired, that we had a back-to-back.”
Taking Fiebich at her word, the only symptom of fatigue for the Libs was their 3-point shooting. Despite generating untold open threes looks against the Mystics, they shot just \_\_% from deep, extending a helping hand to the youthful hosts.
It wasn’t enough to keep Washington in the game though, because New York’s body language was otherwise kempt. With the return of Jonquel Jones from a one-game absence, they got to the paint when threes weren’t falling, drew fouls, and everybody made some nice passes...
More importantly, their defense was fully impenetrable. Jones blocked two shots in addition to her monstrous 14-and-18 double-double, but Burke was a presence around the rim as well, and Leonie Fiebich finished with three blocks and plenty of other shots altered...
This coincided with Fiebich’s best offensive game of the season as well. She did hit a couple open threes, but New York also got her in post-up position following a switch a couple times, which Sandy Brondello has mentioned has an emphasis for the 6’4” German in the past.
“She loves defense,” said Brondello said of Fiebich. “She was shooting threes, she was cutting, she was posting up. It was good for us.”
Fiebich scored 12 points on just five shots, but her length next to New York’s all-WNBA front-court truly broke Washington’s back. The Mystics shot a grotesque 17-of-58 (29.3%) inside the arc, and by the fourth quarter, they were seeing ghosts, missing layups while merely thinking about New York’s length.
The one terse moment for the Liberty on Friday came, as you’d expect, in the third quarter. Sloppy turnovers out of the half led to a 11-2 Mystics run, cutting the margin to four. Brondello called a timeout, and it was obvious the Liberty needed one push to slam the door, or be doomed to a back-and-forth contest with the Mystics.
Sabrina Ionescu hit an and-1 over Sonia Citron, cheekily let her know about it, and that was that...
“She’s one of my favorite players out of this rookie class, someone that I watched in college and saw a lot of myself in her,” said Ionescu of the rookie.
“You know, I was able to kind of reach out to her when she got drafted, kind of wanting to be someone in the league that she’s able to always come to and just kind of share experiences. And so that was kind of a welcome to the league moment.”
It was also the moment the Mystics started to drown, as the Liberty went on a 16-0 run thanks to the defense on one end, and Ionescu on the other. The all-WNBA guard (there is a lot of all-W talent on this team, if you haven’t noticed) finished with 28/3/5 on 67.1 TS%, turned it over just twice, and was at the center of the team’s best offensive possessions for much of the game.
“We’re continuing to trust our movement and understand how teams will play us,” she said. “They protected the paint well, so we continued to create space. We wanted paint touches, but we’re also a good shooting team.”
Well, they weren’t on Friday night, with Breanna Stewart missing all five of her 3-point looks to continue a worrying multi-season trend, but with Ionescu throwing dimes like this...
...it didn’t matter.
Curiously, Natasha Cloud took just one shot and went scoreless in her first return to Washington D.C. after eight years as a Mystic, and played just 22 minutes. It hardly mattered though, as Rebekah Gardner got some run with the starters in her place — those five made the game-sealing run — and notched a season-high 11 points.
If Thursday night was Stewie’s, the following night was Ionescu’s, though the return of Jonquel Jones was vital as well. Even on a back-to-back, even without Nyara Sabally for the fourth straight game (knee), the Liberty still have enough talent to win on any night, against any opponent. At least one of their all-WNBA stars is going to get busy, and the defense remains too long and active for most opponents to compete with.
The Washington Mystics learned that the hard way on Friday night.
**Final Score: New York Liberty 85, Washington Mystics 63**
**Milestone Watch**
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* Leonie Fiebich’s three blocks mark a career-high, a her nine rebounds tie one.
* Jonquel Jones put up her 26th regular season double-double since joining the New York Liberty, who are now a perfect 26-0 when she records a double-double.
* Jones’ 18 rebounds ties a WNBA-wide season-high in 2025.
* Sabrina Ionescu shot 9-16 from the field tonight, passing Crystal Robinson for #4 on the New York Liberty’s all-time leaders in made field goals. She now has 812 makes in her career.
**Injury Report**
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Not much to say about Nyara Sabally and her fourth straight absence due to knee soreness, other than Sandy Brondello is still preaching optimism. This is what she had to say before the game: “Nyara, we’re gonna keep her out another game. She’s making progress and hopefully back on Sunday.”
**Next Up**
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Speaking of Sunday, the New York Liberty face the Connecticut Sun, who are no longer winless after defeating the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever on Friday night! Tip-off at Barclays Center is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET.