Candace Parker had 14 factors, 13 rebounds and eight assists to guide the Chicago Sky over the Liberty 90-72 on Tuesday evening within the deciding Sport 3 to advance to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs.
The defending champion Sky await the winner of the Connecticut-Dallas sequence that may play its deciding Sport 3 on Wednesday.
Betnijah Laney scored 15 factors and Sabrina Ionescu and Natasha Howard every had 14 for the Liberty.
“[Chicago] is a very good staff, see the chemistry the have,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello stated. “They've poise and so they made performs and we couldn’t. We rushed just a few photographs once they made some performs. Happy with these women, pleased with this staff. The extra skilled staff received tonight.”
The seventh-seed Liberty shocked the Sky by profitable Sport 1. Chicago routed the Liberty by a WNBA playoff report 38 factors within the second sport, racing out to a 31-10 lead by the top of the primary quarter and by no means wanting again.
“We knew what we needed to do. They have been all on a mission and you may inform it was a collective mission,” Chicago coach James Wade stated. “We determined it was go time and present what we have been made from and responded in Sport 2 and constructed on it after that.”
This one was much more aggressive. Chicago led 25-20 after one and prolonged the benefit to 54-42 on the half as Parker had seven factors, six assists and 7 rebounds within the first half.
The Liberty scored the primary seven factors of the fourth quarter, together with a five-point possession by Ionescu that bought them inside 68-65 and introduced the sold-out decrease bowl of Barclays Heart to its ft.
That euphoria didn’t final lengthy. Chicago scored the subsequent 16 factors, together with consecutive 3-pointers by Allie Quigley, to finish the run and put the sport away with simply over 4 minutes left.
Performed at Barclays Heart, this was the Liberty’s first dwelling playoff sport since 2017 once they misplaced within the second spherical to Washington. They hadn’t made the semifinals since 2015.
Quigley and Kahleah Copper every added 15 factors whereas Courtney Vandersloot had 14 factors and 10 assists for the second-seeded Sky. Chicago has now received 4 consecutive elimination video games courting to back-to-back single-elimination video games final yr en path to the franchise’s first WNBA championship.
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