The New York Liberty suffered a narrow 93-91 defeat against the Toronto Tempo on Sunday, marking their second consecutive loss. The Liberty mounted a furious second-half comeback, mirroring their efforts from the previous night, but ultimately came up short.
Trailing by 15 points with less than nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Liberty ignited a rally. Breanna Stewart was instrumental, forcing consecutive steals and scoring to bring the deficit to one point with 2:23 left. Sabrina Ionescu then tied the game with a layup assisted by Stewart with 1:30 on the clock.
The final minutes were tightly contested, including a peculiar sequence involving a shoe and a technical foul that led to the ejection of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. Ultimately, Nyara Sabally made a go-ahead layup for the Tempo that sealed the victory.
This marks the second game in a row where the Liberty found themselves digging out of a significant double-digit deficit. The team has now lost all five of their past seven games when trailing by double digits.
The Liberty played without two key players, Leonie Fiebich (foot soreness) and Satou Sabally (concussion protocol), and appeared to be affected by playing their second game in 26 hours.
Stewart finished with 28 points, rebounding from a difficult first half where she shot 2-for-11. Ionescu contributed 22 points and eight rebounds.