New York Liberty beat Minnesota Lynx 99-86, denying Cheryl Reeve a WNBA wins record

NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart scored 36 points and the New York Liberty beat Minnesota 99-86 on Friday night, spoiling Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve’s first attempt to become the WNBA’s career wins leader.

Reeve is tied with Mike Thibault at 379 regular-season victories. Her next chance will be Monday night when the Lynx host Chicago. That game is on the 13-year anniversary of Thibault passing Van Chancellor to break the old mark.

New York (13-8), which won the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup on Tuesday, wasn’t about to let history occur on Friday night.

Stewart got the team going early then Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu took over. Jones finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds and Ionescu had 17 points.

Minnesota (15-5) led 47-46 with 3:32 left in the half before the Liberty closed the second quarter on a 13-2 run. Jones got it started with a three-point play and Pauline Astier closed it with a running layup just before the entertaining first half ended with New York up 59-49. Stewart had 16 of her 18 points in the first half in the opening quarter.

The Liberty put the game away with an early 7-3 run in the fourth that was capped by Jones’ 3-pointer which made it 85-68. The Lynx could only get within 12 the rest of the way.

Kayla McBride led Minnesota with 18 points and Courtney Williams added 16.

Minnesota was still missing star Napheesa Collier, who has been sidelined all season after having offseason surgery on both ankles. She started practicing this week and should be back soon. Forward Dorka Juhasz has also missed the entire season after having a right foot injury in a Euroleague Women semifinal game in late April. She also has been practicing this week.

New York was playing without Satou Sabally, who has been in concussion protocol since she got hit in the head against Las Vegas last week. Coach Chris DeMarco said she was feeling better on Friday. Sabally suffered a concussion in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals last season when she was playing with Phoenix.

NBA Hall of Famer Yao Ming was in attendance.

Up next

Lynx: hosts Chicago on Monday night.

Liberty: hosts Dallas on Tuesday night.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball