Liberty Stars, USA Beat Rookie For Olympic Win

A win in Group C has put the United States’ women’s national basketball team, starring two New York Liberty stars, back on the Olympics’ A-list.

Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu helped put finishing touches on Team USA’s latest Olympic advancement, as an 87-68 victory over Germany in Lille helped secure the Group C win in the Paris Games’ women’s basketball competition.

Stewart and fellow WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas) once again led the way, uniting for 27 points on matching 6-of-11 efforts from the field while Ionescu and the second unit helped bury the German upset effort and establish a healthy point differential that could help the Americans (3-0) secure the top seed in this week’s Parisian knockout round.

With the group win secure, Team USA now awaits placement in the quarterfinal round. They’ll get the top seed in the eight-team tournament if host nation France loses the final group game against Australia on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, Peacock) or if they win by less than 16. Point differential is the primary tiebreaker in seeding and Team USA stands at plus-58 after the win.

From a wider Liberty perspective, the showdown against Germany could go down as a bittersweet experience: half the seafoam contingent was lost to injury, as Leonie Fiebich left with an apparent shoulder ailment after colliding with Napheesa Collier (Minnesota) and Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut) during the third period. Germany (2-1) was already missing Brooklyn depth star Nyara Sabally, who missed her second straight game after taking friendly fire from Fiebich during opening leg action on Monday.

Fiebich planted seeds for a German upset with a brilliant start, scoring eight points of a 15-6 opening run over the first five minutes. The WNBA rookie capped things off with a steal from Wilson and laying in the uncontested double.

From there, however, the Americans used a variety of rotations to shut down any resistance. The second unit proved particularly efficient in that regard: Brittney Griner (Phoenix) united with Wilson to exploit the Germans’ relative lack of size while the Americans sped things up at the onset of the second half by placing Ionescu and Jewell Loyd (Seattle) in the opening five.

Six of the seven American reserves, including Ionescu, scored at least six points, with Jackie Young (Las Vegas) leading all with 19 in relief. Ionescu had six while dishing out a game-best five assists and Wilson paced the American scorers with 14 and four steals, besting Stewart by on in the former department.

While Sunday’s finale proved heartbreaking, the Germans are moving onto quarterfinal play in their maiden Olympic voyage. Fiebich scored 10 points prior to her medically-induced departure while the busy Satou Sabally (Dallas) led German scorers with 15.

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