New York won their first WNBA title after defeating Minnesota in overtime

A year after losing in the championship round for the sixth time, the New York Liberty won their first WNBA title on Sunday after defeating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime of a winner-take-all Game Five matchup in Brooklyn.

Jonquel Jones, the Most Valuable Player of the WNBA Finals, scored a team-high 17 points for New York, as the top-seeded Liberty overcame a slow start to deny the Lynx a record sixth championship.

“This is something special right here and I’m trying not to cry,” said Breanna Stewart, who shared the gold medal with Sabrina Ionescu on Team USA during the Olympics in Paris.

“We had some ups and downs, this series was tough, but we fought through because we wanted to bring it home to this city and this crowd.”

Late in the fourth quarter, New York took a four-point lead thanks to timely shot-blocking and a clutch three-pointer by Ionescu, her club’s first of the game, but neither team was able to break away.

With 38 seconds remaining in regulation, Stewart missed two free throws to tie the game, but she wasted her time on her subsequent trip at the line to force extra time.

Before Nyara Sabally gave them their largest lead of the game, New York took the jump ball to begin overtime and immediately took the lead thanks to a three-pointer from Leonie Fiebich that ended up being the game-winning basket.

Then, with ten seconds remaining in overtime, Stewart converted two free throws to win the championship.

Game Five began slowly for the Liberty, who wasted a chance to win the championship in Minnesota on Friday. They never took the lead until the end of the third quarter after missing their first 16 three-point attempts.

After a first quarter in which the Liberty’s top two scorers this season, Stewart and Ionescu, failed to score a point, Minnesota, led 19–10 thanks to Napheesa Collier.

The Liberty, who missed all nine of their three-point attempts in the half, used a late surge to cut into a 12-point hole and trailed by seven at the half. The Lynx employed strong defense to prevent Stewart and Ionescu from developing any rhythm.

New York started the third quarter with increased energy and took the lead late in the quarter when Ionescu made a fantastic pass to Sabally for a lay-up, waking up the home crowd and giving the hosts a 40-38 lead.

Jones, who finished the Finals with an average of 17.8 points, stated, “I could never dream of this,” following his MVP award.

“It’s biggest moment and you have to lock in if you want to be a champion and it was all about this and us winning together because we really love each other.”

Three games in the series were decided by three points or less, capping a season in which the WNBA saw its popularity soar and was strengthened by the emergence of freshman phenom Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever.