Liberty vs. Sun: Jonquel Jones Scores 23 in Her Connecticut Farewell as New York Wins Without Ionescu

The shot clock was about to expire, the Liberty were wobbling, and Marine Johannes was falling sideways on one leg when she let it fly. It went in. That three early in the fourth quarter stretched a one-point lead to four at Mohegan Sun Arena, and Connecticut, which had spent all of Saturday afternoon refusing to take a hint, never got that close again.

New York won 82-75 without Sabrina Ionescu, who sat with an ankle she tweaked on Thursday, and the day belonged to someone this building knows by heart. Jonquel Jones scored 23 points with 11 rebounds in her last game in Connecticut, since the Sun are moving to Houston next year. Six years with the Sun, a No. 35 jersey the franchise retired in June, and one final afternoon reminding the old neighborhood what it used to have.

Life Without Ionescu Started Terribly

For about a quarter, the absence looked like a crisis. Connecticut hit New York with an 18-6 run and led 27-19 after one, while Breanna Stewart was in the middle of a truly bizarre shooting day, missing her first seven shots and not scoring until 2:32 remained in the second. The Liberty had also coughed up 40 fourth-quarter points to Los Angeles two days earlier, so nobody was feeling especially serene.

Then Jones decided she'd seen enough. She poured in 19 by halftime, a season high for points in a half according to the team, and the Liberty flipped the game with a 15-0 run between 4:40 and 1:13 of the second. A 35-31 Connecticut lead became a 46-35 New York lead in about three and a half minutes. The Sun shot 3 of 17 in the period, New York won it 27-10, and the Liberty took a 46-37 lead to the locker room.

Connecticut deserves credit for what came next, because a team that walked in at 8-24 had every excuse to fold. The Sun won the third 19-15, Olivia Nelson-Ododa kept living at the rim and the foul line, and by early in the fourth it was 63-62. Enter Johannes, the shot clock and the one leg.

Jones Says Goodbye, Johannes Does the Damage

Jones went 9 of 16 from the field and 3 of 7 from deep, which is the entire scouting report on why she's so miserable to guard. She'll drag a defender out to the arc on one trip, then go collect nine defensive rebounds anyway. It was her third straight double-double, and the Liberty's game notes turned up the perfect footnote: this was her 45th career double-double at Mohegan Sun Arena, regular season and playoffs combined, tying Tina Charles for the second most by any player in the building. She'd been a late scratch on the night the Sun retired her number, so Saturday was her only game here all season. She made it count.

Johannes slid into the starting lineup with Ionescu out and finished with 17 points on 6 of 9 shooting, 5 of 8 from three, plus five assists and a game-best plus-9. The team says it was her 14th game with at least five made threes in a Liberty uniform, second most in franchise history behind the woman she was replacing. Jones' own review ended up in the title of the Liberty's postgame video: "She Was Unbelievable." No notes.

Connecticut's best answer was Nelson-Ododa, who was legitimately excellent with 21 points and 10 rebounds on 7 of 9 shooting and a perfect 7 of 7 at the line. She did it with Brittney Griner out because of a left knee issue and Aaliyah Edwards sidelined by a left ankle injury from Thursday's game against Atlanta. Charlisse Leger-Walker added 14 on four threes, but Diamond Miller went 3 of 13, and the Sun needed 67 shots to make 24.

Ten Points That Ended the Suspense

That off-balance three made it 66-62 and opened a 10-2 burst that Johannes personally gift-wrapped a few minutes later, burying a 26-foot step-back off a Pauline Astier feed with 3:37 left for 73-64. Consider the range of that run: it started with a prayer and ended with pure disrespect.

New York kept stacking. Rebecca Allen splashed a 23-footer on a Johannes assist, Johannes drove for a layup at 2:19, and the lead hit 78-66, the largest of the day. The team's notes clock the whole stretch as a 15-4 run that began at 6:37.

Stewart got a small measure of justice too. After Kennedy Burke's three cut it to 80-73, her 4-foot layup with 28.2 seconds left made it 82-73 and killed whatever drama remained. She finished with 11 points on 3 of 12 shooting, which on most nights would be the story. Here it was a subplot.

The Numbers Behind the Getaway

• 13 of 27 vs. 8 of 29: The three-point line. New York shot 48 percent from deep and Connecticut 28, a 15-point swing in a seven-point game.
• 19 of 22 vs. 9 of 11: The foul line. The Sun made 10 more and it still didn't cover the gap above.
• 3 of 17: Connecticut's shooting in the second quarter, whose 10 points were the second fewest by a Liberty opponent in any quarter this season, per the team.
• 9 of 14: New York's shooting in the fourth, when it also won the paint 12-4.

Nine of 11, Even Shorthanded

The win moved New York to 22-14, 10-9 on the road, and the Liberty have now won nine of their past 11. They also finished a 3-0 season series with the Sun after taking the first two meetings 106-75 and 89-80. Doing this without Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich or Satou Sabally, in a nine-player rotation, with Stewart ice cold for a half, is the sort of win that makes a record feel sturdier. Coach Chris DeMarco described Ionescu as day to day before the game and called sitting her a precaution, so Tuesday's trip to Chicago is the next checkpoint.

Connecticut fell to 8-25, 5-12 at home, and has lost two straight after Thursday's 104-69 beating from Atlanta. The Sun host Los Angeles on Tuesday in Boston.

One Last Trip to the Old Apartment

Fans usually get years of watching a former star come back and cook their team. Connecticut got exactly one more game of it, because the franchise is leaving and Jones' visits leave with it. So she did what any great former roommate does when she stops by to drop off the keys: stayed just long enough to rearrange the furniture, win at your own board game and remind you why her name is still on the lease. The Sun gave her the ceremony in June. She gave them the bill in August.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game notes from the New York Liberty. Injury details and context as reported by the Associated Press.