The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama native Jonquel Jones and the New York Liberty were handed a 17-point blowout loss in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Finals opener.

The highly anticipated women’s matchup was finally underway as the league’s two superteams clashed but the defending champions Las Vegas Aces launched the first strike and took down their opponents 99-82.

The Aces had a dominant performance in the second half, showing why they are last year’s champions, to sap the excitement out of the Liberty’s first finals return since 2002 and remain undefeated in the playoffs.

With multiple narratives surrounding this year’s exciting matchup, it was a tale of two halves for the Liberty in game one. The latter jumped out to a 25-22 lead in the first quarter as they looked to claim game one of the finals over the reigning champions. The team ended the first half of play leading by 3 and with the score 49-46.

Liberty guard Marine Johannes dropped 14 points off the bench in the loss. She scored all of her points in the first two quarters of the game, including four makes from behind the arc.

However, in the second half, her momentum stalled as the Aces defence left her scoreless.

Despite the loss, Jones earned her seventh consecutive double-double which is the most all-time recorded in a single postseason.

The former WNBA MVP amassed 16 points, 10 rebounds and one block while shooting 7-for-12 from the field. She suffered a slight scare in the first quarter after an apparent ankle injury but was able to return for the Liberty in the following period.

The Liberty forward told reporters at the postgame press conference that she got the ankle taped up in the locker room and felt fine.

Although she turned in a double-double, Jones only scored four of her 16 points in the second half.

“I just felt like they crowded the paint really well, they sat off, kind of made us make that extra pass out and were willing to kind of just give that up and see how we played it,” she said.

After holding a three-point advantage going into halftime, then came the league’s number one team.

The Aces poked holes in the Liberty’s defence in the second half of play. Aces guards Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum gave New York problems on the defensive end, as they each notched playoff career highs with 26 points apiece.

The offensive onslaught by the two guards helped the Aces to run out to a 67-63 lead in the third quarter. The final period saw the defending champions gain a 22-point advantage, their largest lead of the game, at the 3:32 mark as they outscored the Liberty 53-33 in the second half.

Breanna Stewart, the league’s MVP, had a quiet 21 points to pair with nine rebounds.

However, the defensive efforts of A’ja Wilson, who scored 19 points in the win, held the MVP to 8-for-19 shooting from the field and 1-for-4 from three. The performance of Chelsea Gray, who dropped 20 points in the win, along with Young and Plum derailed any chances of a Liberty win on Sunday night as they scored 72 points altogether.

The Aces held Jones’ team to 46.4 per cent shooting while converting 54.7 per cent of their field goals. The Las Vegas team outscored the Liberty 42 to 32 in the paint.

Additionally, they got to the line 23 times and made 20 of their attempts on 87 per cent shooting.

The theme of their last five games against each other continued this past weekend in which each victory margin was by an average 19.2 points.

The Liberty will look to make the necessary adjustments in game two of the best-of-five series at the Michelob ULTRA Arena Wednesday at 9pm.