Portland Fire notch first win, edge New York Liberty on buzzer-beater
The Portland Fire are in the win column. The expansion squad — which revitalized an earlier iteration of the franchise that played in the WNBA from 2000 to 2002 — collected its first victory of the season Tuesday, beating the New York Liberty 98-96. Second-year guard Sarah Ashlee Barker had the game winner on a put-back as time expired, and pandemonium ensued.
Sarah Ashlee Barker with the buzzer-beating putback for the Fire’s first-ever win. Incredible finish. [image or embed]— Sean Highkin (@hig
The Portland Fire are in the win column. The expansion squad — which revitalized an earlier iteration of the franchise that played in the WNBA from 2000 to 2002 — collected its first victory of the season Tuesday, beating the New York Liberty 98-96. Second-year guard Sarah Ashlee Barker had the game winner on a put-back as time expired, and pandemonium ensued.
The Liberty were short-handed, playing without Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally, among others, but they still had MVPs Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones and All-Star Betnijah Laney-Hamilton in the starting lineup. Still, it was the Fire who came out ahead, behind a career-high 26 points from Bridget Carleton. The No.
1 pick in the expansion draft, Carleton set her previous career best of 25 points against New York in 2020. She upped that mark against the Liberty again on a historic night in Portland. She was particularly prolific from the deep right wing; the Fire took their first lead of the second half at 59-57 with a Carleton 3-pointer that capped a 10-0 run.