Sabally and Thomas combine for Mercury to come to Liberty and match the series

The decisive third game between Mercury and Liberty will be Friday night in Phoenix.

New York – Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas scored 15 points each to help the Phoenix Mercury to overcome New York Liberty 86-60 in the second game on Wednesday night, matching the playoff series to the best of three.

The decisive third game will be Friday night in Phoenix.

Sabally came from one of the worst shooting matches of his career, with 2 of 17 in the first game, but said in Tuesday’s training that he hoped to recover. Kahleah Copper and Dewanna Bonner scored 14 each.

New York had great emotional relief before the game with Breanna Stewart, who could play after suffering a sprain of the medial collateral ligament of the left knee in the extension of the first game on Sunday. He started as always, but was practically ineffective, with only six points in 20 minutes. Stewart’s impulse did not last long.

After the defeat by 75-69 in the first game, Phoenix players felt that many shots that normally scored. Those shots were entering Wednesday night.

Phoenix led 14 at rest and scored the first six points of the third quarter to take an advantage of 20 points. The Mercury kept the Liberty without a basket in the third quarter until Emma Meesseman scored with 1:35 to play. New York failed his first 12 shots before that.

Meesseman scored 11 points to lead the Liberty, who only scored 32 points of their starting group.

Phoenix took control of the game in the second quarter with Sabally and Thomas. The Mercury led 36-30 before achieving a 13-0 partial to expand the advantage to 19 points with just under 3 minutes for playing in the first half.

New York approached 51-37 to rest when Natasha Cloud scored a triple from the corner to 1.8 seconds from the end that stood the audience that crowded the stadium, including Spike Lee, Tracee Ellis Ross and Sue Bird.

The Liberty could have been a little closer, but they had difficulties from the free throw line in the first half. Sabrina Ionescu, who had a 93% success from the free throw line during the regular season, failed her first four free throws before scoring one.