SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
New York Liberty sharpshooting guard Sabrina Ionescu was right on target in claiming the 3-point shooting contest of Friday’s Women’s National Basketball Association All-Star event played in Las Vegas, Nev.
The former All-America out of Oregon made good on 37 of a possible 40 points to handily defeat Sami Whitcomb of the Seattle Storm and Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings in the final. Whitecomb had 24 points and Ogunbowale 11.
“I was very happy with my effort,” Ionescu said. “I knew they were going and I was telling my agents over there that I didn’t even wait for the ball to go through the net.
“As soon as I shot it, it looked good and I just went down and kept grabbing (basketballs) and listening to the fans as they were cheering, knowing that they were going in, so they were my validation.”
The Las Vegas Aces combo of Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray won the skills contest with a time of 44.3 seconds in the final round to easily surpass the Liberty’s Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot’s 58.0.
With Alice Quigley not playing after winning four 3-point contests that included the last two, it cleared the way for Ionescu and she made both three-point balls and all five two-point money balls that included at one time 20 in a row.
