Liberty shake off rare loss, rout Mercury

Betnijah Laney matched a season high with 22 points, Marine Johannes made four 3-pointers and the New York Liberty handled business against the host Phoenix Mercury in an 85-63 win on Friday.

Playing the second game of a back-to-back following a road loss to the Las Vegas Aces, the Liberty started slowly but doubled up the Mercury 32-16 in the third quarter. Before the Thursday defeat, New York had won seven straight games, including the Commissioner's Cup final.

The Liberty (25-7) got 18 points and seven rebounds from Sabrina Ionescu and 18 points off the bench from Johannes. Breanna Stewart, who played 37 minutes on Thursday, added 12 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes on Friday.

Diana Taurasi and Sophie Cunningham each put up 14 points for the Mercury (9-22), who lost their second straight. Phoenix played without leading scorer and rebounder Brittney Griner and fellow center Megan Gustafson, who were placed in health and safety protocol on Thursday.

Phoenix led for most of the first quarter and held a 19-16 edge after the period. Taurasi sank her first three 3-point tries of the game, yet the Mercury went on to finish the game 4-for-23 (17.4 percent) from beyond the arc.

Johannes answered for New York by making three treys in the second quarter. Her first tied the score 46 seconds into the frame, the second knotted it 26-26 and the third finally pushed the Liberty in front again at 31-28 with 6:02 left in the half.

Cunningham's basket with 1:19 to go cut the deficit to 39-38, but Ionescu and Laney responded to give the Liberty a 43-38 halftime lead.

Laney shot 5-for-7 and scored 13 points in the third quarter alone. She made back-to-back layups, including a tough shot off the glass for an and-one, to make it 64-46. Then Ionescu was left all alone for an easy layup to earn New York's first 20-point lead of the night.

The Mercury scored two layups in response, but Ionescu buried a long 3-pointer to quell any hope of a rally.

The Liberty led 75-54 after three quarters and were never in danger in a low-scoring fourth quarter.