Liberty cruise to straightforward win over Fever after historic 44-point first quarter

Betnijah Laney had luck appeal within the crowd for her career-high 22-point efficiency on Sunday at Barclays Middle.

Laney, the Liberty’s main scorer, credited her younger niece, JJ, for her offensive success and serving to with the 101-83 victory over the Indiana Fever.

“I additionally had JJ sitting courtside, in order that helped loads,” Laney stated. “It’s particular as a result of she sees any individual making an attempt to be an instance for her.”

The guard paced her squad to a record-setting first quarter.

The Liberty held a 44-17 benefit after the primary quarter, marking the highest-scoring quarter in WNBA historical past, of which Laney scored 12 factors.

Indiana left the Liberty open everywhere in the court docket and paid for it.

Laney had actual tenacity driving to the basket and displayed energy down low, zipping previous the Fevers’ protection and having her means within the paint.

“Simply studying what the protection is giving, they’re beginning to shut out extra alongside the [3-point line], so in the event that they’re going to do this, simply ensuring that I’m in a position to assault and blend it up,” Laney stated.

With 4 video games within the subsequent seven days, coach Sandy Brondello talked pregame about eager to get her rotation going earlier to arrange for the busy stretch.

She was in a position to just do that as her starters went out, took care of enterprise and gave their group an enormous cushion heading into the second quarter.

“This group is simply shopping for into how we need to play,” Brondello stated. “Offensively, I simply suppose we’re very unselfish. We discovered nice photographs simply by our motion.”

Kayla Thornton, Jocelyn Willoughby, Nyara Sabally and Marine Johannes joined Courtney Vandersloot on the court docket to open the second and continued to push the tempo, already at a dominant tempo.

Johannes poured in 9 factors off the bench to succeed in the profession 500-point mark.

“We have now a deep bench. For them to return out and have the ability to do what they did, it exhibits how robust we’re as a unit,” Laney stated.

Whereas the Liberty loosened up on their protection a bit as halftime crept nearer — the Fever went on a 20-8 run to shut out the half — they nonetheless got here away with a 68-46 lead on the break.

A behind-the-back lob from Sabrina Ionescu to Laney chopping down the center for a seamless layup made it 82-52 with 5:43 left to play within the third quarter because the Liberty refused to be complacent with their comfy lead.

“It wasn’t excellent. It’s fairly onerous to play an ideal recreation, however I feel we dealt with it very properly and undoubtedly had the correct kind of mindset and poise to maintain the lead all through the sport,” Jonquel Jones stated.

The Liberty are second within the WNBA at 16-5 with eight wins of their final 10 video games.