Liberty advances to the WNBA Finals for the second straight year with a revenge victory over Aces

There will be a new WNBA champion in 2024.

The long-awaited revenge has been achieved and the Liberty will return to Barclays Center for the reason they wanted.

A year later, a round earlier, and in a not-so-pretty Game 4, the Liberty got their revenge on the Aces, who beat them in four games in the 2023 WNBA Finals, and they punched their ticket to a second-place finish outright final after a 76-62 win over Las Vegas at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Entering the fourth quarter, the Liberty led by just three points and two of their five starters – Leonie Fiebich and Jonquel Jones – were penalized with four fouls each.

Courtney Vandersloot also wore three.

However, they were able to keep their composure in the final quarter after a game full of turnovers and fouls and did not commit any turnovers in the final 10 minutes, which would dent their lead.

The Liberty opened the final quarter with their first two shots, including a drive by Sabrina Ionescu.

The star guard then hit her fifth 3-pointer of the game, giving the Liberty a 7-0 run and their largest lead of the game (11 points).

Buckets from Jones beyond the arc and Fiebich in the paint and from the charity stripe followed to carry the Liberty to victory.

The Liberty had lost two games in a row just once all season and maintained that record on Sunday.

A key factor for New York was Ionescu’s comeback after being limited to just four points by the Aces in Game 3.

She finished with 22 points and shot 5 of 8 from distance, followed by Breanna Stewart with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

They were able to hold the Aces to just 32 percent shooting while A’ja Wilson still managed to score 19 points and grab 10 rebounds.