“We played Liberty basketball, but understanding, this is their Super Bowl game,” Ionescu said after the loss (h/t SNY). “We’ve beaten them three times this year already. We knew they were gonna come into this game really hungry, and it’s tough to beat a team four times.”
Clark recorded the first triple-double by a rookie in WNBA history as the Fever rallied for the win.
Ionescu led the Liberty with 22 points in the loss.
“It’s just tough in our league, especially with how every team has grown, and especially this young team,” Ionescu said. “We’ve been able to see how much they’ve grown, just throughout the first half of the season.
“I don’t think it was necessarily us not playing our style of basketball, it was just understanding that we have to come in with a sense of urgency knowing it’s not going to be as easy as it was in the first couple games that we were able to go up against them, because they’ve just grown.”
The Liberty and Fever met three times within a 17-day span last month. New York won all three games, twice with a margin of victory over 35 points.
Those games came during a difficult first half of the season for the young Fever roster, which recorded just two wins in their first 11 games.
But in the 10 games leading up to their fourth matchup against the Liberty, the Fever had won six of their last ten contests, including a four-game win streak at the end of June.
That growing confidence showed as the Fever outscored the Liberty by 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Clark opened the game with an 11-point first quarter on 4-of-5 shooting and finished with 19 points, 13 assists, and 12 rebounds.
The Fever rookie etched her name behind Ionescu’s record as the second-fastest player in WNBA history to record a triple-double (Clark marked the feat in 22 games, Ionescu in six.) She also beat out Ionescu as the fastest rookie to reach 350 points, 150 assists, and 120 rebounds (Ionescu needed 30 games to reach the milestone.)
Clark and the Fever will now look to ride the momentum of a win over one of the best teams in the league and extend their home win streak to six games on Wednesday against Aaliyah Edwards and the Washington Mystics.
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