SEATTLE — Breanna Stewart scored 32 points, Sabrina Ionescu added 25 and the New York Liberty beat the Seattle Storm 98-85 on Friday night.
Leonie Fiebic added 12 points for the Liberty (27-7), which bounced back after ending a three-game West Coast trip with a loss to the last-place Los Angeles Sparks.
Jonquel Jones, who missed the last game with an illness and has been sick ever since, grabbed 11 rebounds as Liberty dominated the rebounding game, 45-17.
Liberty grabbed 17 offensive rebounds.
New York shot 50.7 percent from the field and made 12 of 26 3-pointers, helping offset 18 turnovers that led to Seattle's 24 points.
Seattle (19-12) fell to a tie for fourth place with Las Vegas but clinched a playoff berth thanks to losses to Atlanta and Chicago.
Seattle shot 46.5 percent from the field, but was just 5 of 16 in the fourth quarter.
Skylar Diggins-Smith had 26 points, but just two in the fourth quarter and seven assists.
Jewel Loyd added 20 points and Nneka Ogwumike had 15 points.
When Ionescu scored a rare basket midway through the fourth quarter to make the score 89-79, it looked like the game was going to be a New York win.
She was driving to the basket when she fell while attempting a contested layup.
The rebound fell to her and she took a bank shot from her knees.
The Storm trailed by six with under three minutes left, but Fievich grabbed two offensive rebounds and drilled a 3-pointer before Ionescu scored six more points to close out the game.
The first quarter saw seven ties and seven lead changes, with Liberty finishing with a 27-26 lead.
Liberty then scored its first 11 points of the second quarter on three 3-pointers, the final two by Stewart.
Stewart's driving layup made it 40-30, but Seattle stormed back with eight straight points and two 3-pointers to take a 44-42 lead.
The halftime score was 51-49 in favor of Seattle, the most points the Liberty had allowed at halftime this season.
Diggins-Smith had 14 points and Ogwumike had 11 for Seattle, while Stewart, returning to where he began his career, scored 22 points, surpassing his per-game average (20.1).
Ionescu scored 12 points in the final 5 1/2 minutes to help New York lead 74-71 at the end of the third quarter.
