Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas each scored 15 points to help the Phoenix Mercury beat the Liberty, 86-60, in Game 2 on Wednesday night in New York, evening the best-of-three playoff series.
The decisive Game 3 will be Friday night in Phoenix.
Sabally was coming off one of the worst shooting games of her career when she was 2 for 17 in Game 1, but said in practice Tuesday that she was confident she’d bounce back. Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner each had 14.
New York had a huge emotional lift before the game with Breanna Stewart able to play after spraining the MCL in her left knee in overtime of Game 1 on Sunday. She was in her customary starting spot, but was mostly ineffective with just six points in 20 minutes.
The boost from Stewart playing didn’t last long.
After the 75-69 Game 1 loss, Phoenix players felt they missed a lot of shots they normally hit. Those shots were falling on Wednesday night.
Phoenix led by 14 at the half and scored the first six points of the third quarter to take a 20-point lead. The Mercury held the Liberty without a basket in the third until Emma Meesseman scored with 1:35 left in the period. New York missed its first 12 shots before that.
Meesseman had 11 points to lead the Liberty, who only got 32 points out of their starting group.
Phoenix took control of the game in the second quarter behind Sabally and Thomas. The Mercury led 36-30 before going on a 13-0 run to extend the advantage to 19 with just under 3 minutes left in the half.
New York got within 51-37 at the half as Natasha Cloud hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 1.8 seconds left that brought the sellout crowd — which included Spike Lee, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Sue Bird — to its feet.
The Liberty could have been a bit closer, but they struggled from the foul line in the first half. Sabrina Ionescu, who shot 93 percent from the foul line during the regular season, missed her first four free throws before finally hitting one.
