INDIANAPOLIS — This was the version of Brianna Stewart the Liberty needed.
This was the team they relied on last year as Stewart’s MVP season coincided with Liberty’s appearance in the WNBA Finals.
Despite coming away with a win against the Mystics in the season opener, they only earned eight points.
But in Thursday’s 102-66 win over the Indiana Fever, a game that spoiled Caitlin Clark’s home opener, Stewart had 31 points and 10 rebounds, sparking the Liberty’s efficient offense. After a dominant opener, she followed through on her plan to be more aggressive. .
After attempting nine shots against Washington, he hit 21 on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“Do whatever you can to put them in the most uncomfortable position they want to defend defensively,” Stewart told reporters after the game. “But overall, I wanted to be more aggressive from the last game.”
She took the lead with a jumper from the left side of the paint, but Stewart continued to be effective from that area, connecting on just one 3-pointer and making just three attempts.
Eleven of her points came in the first quarter, when Liberty laid the foundation for what would eventually become a commanding lead.
With less than four minutes left in the second quarter, Stewart made a jumper that brought Liberty back up to nine points. She knew the Liberty team could get “what it wanted” in transition — finishing with 16 transition points to Indiana’s two — and executed well.
Last year, in the first edition of Liberty’s super team, Stewart often carried the offense.
They had a lot of options with Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot in the starting lineup, but Stewart had four regular-season games with 40 or more points and 30 Liberty secured the No. 2 seed after compiling three games in which they scored more points or more. postseason.
All of this helped him win his second career MVP award, narrowly defeating Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun.
And her quest to defend that title took an important step on the Thursday after the season opener.
“There will be games where we only score eight points. We just don’t have the flow offensively,” Vandersloot told the Post. “And you’re going to have matches like this. I mean, she’s always a threat. That’s what’s special about her, and when she scores like this, she makes it look easy, but Actually, that’s not the case.”
