Breanna Stewart, Liberty dominate Tempo as starters get pulled in third quarter
TORONTO — Breanna Stewart caught fire in Berlin to help USA Basketball capture its fifth consecutive World Cup medal.
She’s been unstoppable since.
Stewart was so good in Sunday’s 106-69 blowout of the Toronto Tempo that she earned the right to sit the entire fourth quarter.
The Liberty led by eight points at halftime, but Stewart blew things wide open with a dominant third quarter.
She made five consecutive shots to score 14 of her game-high 27 points. Her lone miss in that frame was a nearly half-court heave to beat the shot clock.
Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu headed to the bench with 2:46 left in the third. Jonquel Jones followed shortly after.
After helping the Liberty pull ahead by 21 points entering the fourth, New York’s big three got rewarded for putting the work in early. They let the rest of the team close out this one, with recently signed developmental player Madison Scott making her season debut.
Two days after logging 38 minutes in a statement win against the Minnesota Lynx, Stewart played only 22 minutes.
Coach Chris DeMarco said he’d be monitoring player workloads with Sunday being the front end of a back-to-back and the second of four games in six days with playoffs on the horizon.
Stewart led Team USA in minutes played in Berlin. Leonie Fiebich also played heavy minutes for Germany, which finished fourth in the tournament.
“We understand it’s playoff time, and these games matter,” DeMarco said pregame. “Some players will play a little bit more, but we have to monitor Stew coming out of Team USA and the World Cup and how she’s feeling, and everyone else … Teamwide we’re looking at it.”
The Liberty took control early. Their offense was clicking in the first quarter. The ball hummed, resulting in eight assists on 10 makes.
The Liberty offense stagnated, though, during a stretch in the second quarter. They missed six consecutive shots during an 8-1 Tempo run that cut the Liberty lead to four.
New York finished the quarter strong to take an eight-point lead into the half.
Ionescu, who’s been prone to disappearing acts this season as she’s dealt with a nagging back injury, couldn’t get it going in Toronto.
She missed all seven shots in the first half.
Though her shot wasn’t falling, she still found ways to impact the game, finishing with nine assists.
The Liberty, who are still jockeying for playoff positioning, head home for two games against the Atlanta Dream. If New York wins out, the team could finish as high as fourth, which would give it home-court advantage in the first round.