Liberty can't climb out of hole in loss to Las Vegas Aces

The Liberty attempted one ascent after another in an attempt to conquer the Las Vegas Aces on Thursday night. They never reached the summit.

On five separate occasions during the fourth quarter, the Liberty had a possession where they could have tied the game after trailing the whole way. All five came up empty and the Aces went on to a 94-82 victory at Barclays Center.

The first four of those came with the Las Vegas lead — that was 14 after one quarter and grew as big as 19 — down to just three points. They ended with three missed three-pointers — by Betnijah Laney, Sabrina Ionescu and Rebecca Allen — and an Ionescu turnover.

The fifth came with the margin again at three moments after a Laney pull-up jumper closed the gap to 80-79 with 3:59 to play. Ionescu had a good look at a three-pointer that would have put the Liberty ahead for the first time, but it rimmed out.

"We can’t start the game giving a team a 14-point lead ... but I’m very, very proud of the way that they fought and found ways to get back into this game," Liberty coach Walt Hopkins said. "[Our] team is really, really tough but the way that we start games is definitely going to be a focus for us."

"We don’t want to put ourselves in the position where we are having to fight back, but when we are put in those positions, we continue to be really resilient," Michaela Onyenwere said. "It just shows how much fight we have as a team [and that] we never stop believing in one another."

There were a pair of glaring differences that leapt out of the box score. Las Vegas took 29 free throws to the Liberty’s nine, which a clearly irritated Hopkins said "was the difference in the game." And the Aces made 26 of them (90%).

Laney had 23 points, Allen a season-high 16 and Sami Whitcomb 14. Ionescu was limited to just five points on 2-for-13 shooting but had nine rebounds and nine assists for the Liberty (5-3), and Hopkins suggested the season-ending ankle injury from 2020 might still be an issue.

"She’s trying to will us back into the game like she’s done so many times in her career and sometimes the shots don’t fall," he said. "I don’t know if it’s mobility. I don’t know if it’s pain. But it’s pretty clear to me, movement-wise, that something’s not right."

A’ja Wilson had 30 points and 13 rebounds and Jackie Young added 16 points for the Aces (6-3).

Allen was the catalyst for the initial comeback, scoring all of the Liberty points in a 14-2 run that cut a pargin that had been 40-21 to 42-35. She made jumpers and drives and looked the best she has this season.

"I just wanted to look like me again," she said. "I let the shots come to me."

Odom debuts. Leonna Odom made her debut after missing the first seven games of the season with an Achilles' injury and looked like she soon could provide the team with a needed boost. In 12 minutes, she had seven points on 3-for-3 shooting.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.