New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu hits winning 3 in season opener

Sabrina Ionescu had a dream that she would hit a winning shot in her New York City debut.

That dream became reality when Ionescu made a 3-pointer from the wing with less than a second remaining to give the New York Liberty a 90-87 victory over the Indiana Fever on Friday night in the WNBA’s season opener.

“I 100 percent had a vision of hitting a game winner,” said Ionescu, who was wearing mentor Kobe Bryant’s Lakers jersey in the postgame news conference. “We were tied walking into the huddle and I was smiling. It was too good to be true. I was ready for the moment.”

The No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft scored 25 points in her first game in nearly 10 months after injuring her ankle three contests into her rookie season that was played in Florida due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the game on the line, she got the ball near the wing and hit the deep shot to give the Liberty the lead with 0.4 seconds left. Indiana couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer on the other end.

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