The New York Liberty are WNBA champions for the first time in their 28-year history after coming from behind to defeat the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime on Sunday night in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the finals.
Related: WNBA finals Game 5: New York Liberty beat Minnesota Lynx in OT to win first title – live
Jonquel Jones scored 17 points to lead New York on a night when her teammates Breanna Strewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggled mightily on the offensive end.
Napheesa Collier, the WNBA’s defensive player of the year, scored 22 points to lead Minnesota before fouling out in overtime.
The Liberty were one of the original eight WNBA franchises and the lone member of that class to have not won a championship. No longer.
The best-of-five series between the Liberty and the Lynx will go down as one of the most dramatic in WNBA history. All five games came down to the last few possessions, with two going to overtime and another settled by a last-second winner.
Jones was named Most Valuable Player of the WNBA finals after she averaged 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds a game across the five contests.
Full report to follow …
