August 29th, 2015: New York at Connecticut

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The New York Liberty jumped out to a big lead, lost it all in the third quarter, and then built it back in the fourth to take down the short-handed Sun, 80-66. Epiphanny Prince led New York with 18 points, adding four steals and four assists. Kelsey Bone of Connecticut led all scorers with 22.

For billions, a supreme faux pas, earrings on clearance, sandwiches, pizza, chips, cupcakes, sodas, souvenir cups, rowdy fans, promises kept, and a team to love, join your intrepid and blurry blogger after the jump.


Good afternoon, Swish Appealers, Bloggerers, and other internet wanderers! Your intrepid blogger comes to you from Geno's Fast Break at Mohegan Sun, as the playoff-bound Liberty visit the injury-bitten Sun. We eschewed the Chinatown bus and the Mohegan comps for the pleasure of our Liberty family, going up on the Liberty fan bus.

I put a twenty in a slot machine and came away with forty-five dollars, so I consider today a good day already.

The bus trip was really, really nice. Poor Morgan and Genesis ended up waitressing the entire bus, but the provided meal was very thorough (Potbelly sandwiches, bags of chips, cookies/mini muffins, and drinks). Plus we get hot dog vouchers!

At the end of the regular season, I'll provide y'all with my 2015 mix, but I listened to that to get hyped up.

So someone at the Sun's ticket office is going to be in trouble, and I don't know whether it's going to be by getting a call from Sienko, from Kristin Bernert, or from Chiney Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams. Our group was stretched across a back row in sections 14 and 15. The problem with that? Section 14 is the section directly behind the Sun bench. Other Liberty fans were seated lower in the same section. You do NOT put road fans behind the home bench. You DO NOT do this thing. You do not put road fans in a one-row radius of player families, and I suspect a trio of our travelers were behind Jasmine Thomas's family. Whoever did the group sale treated us like any other group and did not take into account that it might be a bit rude to the Sun players to pile fifty-odd people in enemy colors on the logo for a postgame photo.

(Seriously, Chiney kept turning around at every timeout and staring up at our row as if plotting our collective painful demise. And then she got Elizabeth Williams into the act, and I don't want to die!)

Sugar Rodgers is popular among the fan base, but she's got to be less afraid to shoot, which are words I never thought I would apply to Sugar Rodgers. She's been consistently passing off shots that she took last year, and I think it's reducing her effectiveness. Brittany Boyd saw some time in the second quarter, and brought a burst of speed. Not always an effective burst of speed, but a change of pace. Candice Wiggins annoyed Kayla Pedersen, and probably everyone else she was on, but especially Pedersen. She had a good look at a corner three, which has become her offensive specialty.

Essence Carson looks off. Her shot is way off, even more than it has been with the eyewear, and she did not have an extra step on defense tonight. I love Essence- rock the black jersey, have the white on the wall, even named a portable hard drive after her- but she's been a disappointment on the court for much of the season. Kiah Stokes got beat with surprising consistency by Kelsey Bone, but held down the middle against all other comers, and converted on the chances she was given on backdoor cuts and offensive rebounds. I like when Kiah does good things, and not just because she's so endearing- her name is fun to say. Stooooooookes. And her Cheesy Musical Hook fits so well with its relentless beat.

Tanisha Wright played light minutes tonight- I think Bill wanted to rest her even more than the superstars. She looked like she was walking a little gingerly, and as one of the older players on the team, she might be a little more banged up and worn down than others. She was solid on defense when she was in, and that third quarter three kept us in the game. Epiphanny Prince is cold-blooded when it comes to the end of the shot clock. Near the end of the second half, I was worried she was going to go into ballhog mode and try to do it all herself (it's like we had a Rutgers scorer who used to do that), but someone talked sense into her during the break, and she got back on the right side of the balance.

Swin Cash did yeoman's work down low. She took a lot of contact and made it abundantly clear that she did not approve of said contact. She did a little bit of everything. Carolyn Swords got beat on a consistent basis by Kelsey Bone- this is not a recording. She didn't look terribly mobile, but that tends to happen on the back end of back-to-backs. Tina Charles was efficient, and found people cutting through the backdoor with pinpoint accuracy. She absorbed a lot of contact without a call.

Nikki Greene saw some minor minutes in the second quarter, but I think those were either to see if she had anything tonight or just to make sure the posts didn't fall over in the second half. She was physical, but Tina was able to get around her. Kayla Pedersen hustled on the boards and made a legitimate attempt at stretching the Liberty's defense with jumpers.

Shekinna Stricklen must have decided she didn't feel like being pigeonholed as a three-point shooter, because she took major advantage of her broad build to overpower smaller defenders (usually Candice), and unveiled a wicked fast first step. She doesn't look that fast, but she might be kinda quick. Chelsea Gray seems to have inherited some of Jasmine Thomas's puck luck- that three hit everything but the kitchen sink before it went in. The rim giveth and the rim taketh away, Chelsea; always be painfully aware of that. If she ever ends up in New York, I'm doing what I did with Kara Braxton and giving her the card to my favorite bra shop, because I get sympathy pains if she's running hard.

Jennifer Lacy ought to know better than to commit some of the fouls she commits, given how long she's been in the league, but she's a gamer. She sticks in this league because she can stretch a defense and because she can get the little things done. She's better as a reserve, though. Camille Little put in a lot of work down low on the boards- not much of it shows up in the boxscore, but she was working on the glass, boxing out hard and hustling. Kelsey Bone started off hot, with wicked spin moves and nice jumpers, but when her shot was off, it was very badly off. But she was the only thing keeping Connecticut in the game for most of the night. I'm really happy for her that she's having such success in Connecticut.

Kelly Faris brought the defense, but she's not the person who should have the ball when the shot clock is running down. I admire her hustle. Jasmine Thomas looks like she's been developing her jumper, which only took how long? I call shenanigans on the four blocks in the box score- I can only think of two, and one of them might have been a steal- it's not clear whether that wa a shot going up or not.

I think Connecticut ultimately just wore down. You can only play eight for so long, knowing that you should have more, knowing that whenever you look at the bench there are four starters in street clothes. I imagine it's emotionally draining.

The officiating was inconsistent, in terms of how tightly it was called from quarter to quarter, but if there were calls that needed a good hard questioning, they were in the Liberty's favor. Except for when Kayla Pedersen elbowed Candice, and even then Candice got to do some hitting of her own.

It was really fun being around all those crazy Liberty fans, but it got frustrating when some people started being sore winners to the Sun fans. Haven't they suffered enough?

Piph, don't yell at the ref. Piph, don't roll-block the ref.

Choral anthem, highly approved.

Got the #shareacoke Chiney and Camille cups, which just leaves Alyssa for the 13th.

Morgan and Genesis really busted their butts on the bus. There was some chaos with the tickets before the game, but it was sorted out.

Shoutout to Swin Cash for coming out of the locker room after the game and huddling us all up for a "WE ARE! NEW YORK!" battle-cry. Perversely, I think it mellowed some of the more exuberant fans out before the group photo.

20 wins. 24 is the magic number. We can do this. I believe in this team, and they believe in this team.