Fiebich and Sabally miss the first match point

Even a strong performance from league newcomer Fiebich, who with 19 points was her team’s second best thrower behind Jonquel Jones (21), was not enough to convert the match point into the first in a continuously close game with 14 lead changes. Sabally came off the bench with four points and five rebounds.

Two seconds before the end, Minnesota’s Bridget Carleton hit the decisive two free throws, on the other side the final three-point attempt by New York’s Sabrina Ionescu, who had secured the victory at the last second in game three, only landed on the board.

“We’re going back to New York and we’re going to make it,” New Yorker Breanna Stewart confidently announced after missing match point in Minnesota. It would be the first title win for WNBA founding member New York around star players Ionescu and Stewart; in the previous season, Liberty lost the final series against the Las Vegas Aces 1:3.