“You can’t guard me!”
Sun guard Tiffany Hayes made this emphatic statement to Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu during Tuesday’s Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals. But Ionescu got the last laugh, leading New York to an 84-77 win and evening the series with Connecticut.
Hayes did score a game-high 30 points at New York’s Barclays Center. In the fourth quarter, as she made another move toward the basket, she was fouled by Ionescu in the paint, which triggered her trash talk.
“Yeah, they can’t guard her,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said after the game. “They can’t guard her, whether they tried to trap her, whether they tried to guard her one-on-one — hence why they went to a zone. They have no answer for her.”
🗣 "You can't guard me!"
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 27, 2023
28 points and counting for Tiffany Hayes in Game 2 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Bd1gcAH8kU
For Ionescu, though, the victory speaks for itself. She led the Liberty with 21 points, and every New York starter finished in double digits.
“I’m not really focused on what other people say and how they try and rattle us,” she said. “For me, it’s all about winning. But it’s fun when you go against competitors that are into the game and want to talk. At the end of the day, it’s all about winning.”
The series continues with Game 3 at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena.