NEW YORK (AP) — Sabrina Ionescu scored 23 points, Rebecca Allen added 17 and the New York Liberty beat the Indiana Fever 87-74 on Wednesday night to snap a seven-game losing streak.
New York was outscored 33-17 in the second quarter, but used two big runs in the second half to take control. New York went on a 13-0 run in the third to take a 53-52 lead on Natasha Howard’s three-point play. The Liberty also went on a 12-0 run, capped by Allen’s 3-pointer, in the fourth to make it 77-68.
Indiana missed its first 14 shots of the fourth and went 1 for 16 in the final 10 minutes. The Fever played at home on Tuesday night.
Howard and Stefanie Dolson each scored 16 points for New York (2-7). Ionescu reached the 20-point plateau for the third time this season.
New York scored the first 11 points of the game as Indiana didn’t make its first field goal until Bria Hartley’s corner 3-pointer with 5:13 remaining in the frame. It was Hartley’s first action of the season as she was recovering from a hamstring injury.
The Fever started 1-for-15 shooting from the floor.
Kelsey Mitchell scored 17 points for Indiana (3-9), which lost to Washington on Tuesday in the first of a back-to-back. Victoria Vivians added 14 points and Hartley 10.
Danielle Robinson sank a running 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer, extending Indiana’s lead to 47-40. Mitchell made three free throws at the end of the third after a questionable fourth foul on Ionescu to give Indiana a 66-65 lead.
New York announced before the game that guard Betnijah Laney underwent a successful arthroscopic partial meniscectomy on her right knee on Wednesday. She’ll be sidelined for approximately eight weeks.
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