NEW YORK — Paige Bueckers scored 24 points, and Azzi Fudd added 17 of her career-high 24 in the third quarter to lift the Dallas Wings to a 91-76 win over the New York Liberty on Sunday, spoiling the season-debut of Sabrina Ionescu.
Fudd, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft in April, took over in the third quarter with her team trailing by one at the start of the half. She missed her first 3-point attempt of the period, but then made her next five — including banking one in that gave Dallas a 66-53 lead with 3:15 left in the period.
Dallas made seven 3-pointers in the quarter to go up 71-61 heading to the final 10 minutes.
New York couldn’t make any headway in the fourth quarter as Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale answered any Liberty challenge. Ogunbowale finished with 19 points for Dallas (4-3).
Ionescu missed New York’s first five games after suffering a left foot injury in a preseason game against Connecticut. She finished with 11 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Her last points came with 5:11 left in the first half, hitting a deep 3-pointer.
The Liberty’s star guard got going quickly against Dallas, scoring four quick points. She also assisted a couple of times to her former Oregon teammate Satou Sabally.
Sabally was playing in her second game for New York after working her way back from a concussion she suffered in the WNBA Finals last season, when she was playing for Phoenix. She finished with 20 points to lead New York (3-3). But after the early burst, the Liberty had no answer for the trio of Wings guards.
While Ionescu was back, New York is still missing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who is out because of personal reasons.
Ionescu doesn’t have much recovery time as the Liberty face the Portland Fire on Monday night in the second half of a back-to-back set.
