Breanna Stewart’s team-high 25 points and 10 rebounds led the visiting New York Liberty to a 78-61 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Thursday in College Park, Georgia.
Stewart had five assists and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added 15 points as Liberty (9-2) recorded its fifth straight win.
Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu each scored 10 points for the Liberty, with Jones grabbing eight rebounds.
Alisha Gray led Atlanta (4-4) with 16 points, and Aerial Powers added 13 off the bench.
Rhyne Howard added 11 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Dream, who lost their second straight game.
Tina Charles, playing against her former team, contributed five points and a team-high eight rebounds for Atlanta.
Holding a six-point lead at halftime, Liberty started the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 45-32 lead with 6:27 left in the third quarter.
Atlanta responded with consecutive jump shots from Gray and Naz Hillmon to close the gap.
With the Dream trailing by 11, Lorella Cubaj made two free throws, then Hillmon and Gray scored again in succession to cut New York’s lead to 47-42 with 2:41 left in the third quarter.
Stewart’s three-point play with 32.1 seconds left gave Liberty a 55-45 lead, and New York led 55-48 going into the final quarter.
Laney Hamilton, Leonie Fiebic and Jones each made at least the first two 3-pointers of the fourth quarter to give New York a 66-53 lead and force an Atlanta timeout with 7:36 to play.
Neither team scored for the next two minutes, but Laney Hamilton made two shots in a 15-second span to put New York up 70-53 at the 5:17 mark.
Powers’ pull-up jump shot ended a 3:35-second scoreless streak and put Atlanta within 70-55 with 4:55 left. Howard made a jump shot to make it 73-59 with 3:44 left, but the Dream were unable to make another field goal.
Atlanta was down five with 3:31 left in the first half, but a layup by Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and a 3-pointer by Charles tied the score at 30-30.
From there, New York went on an 8-2 run, capped off by a mid-range jump shot from Lainie Hamilton, to give the Liberty a 38-32 lead at halftime.
New York led in the first half behind Stewart’s 12 points, while Parker Tyus and Gray each had eight points for Atlanta.
