Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu lead Liberty past Dallas

The moderator called on “Kelly from ducksnation.com” during Friday’s media session on Zoom with the Sabally sisters, Nyara and Satou, who were about to face each other as WNBA players for the first time.

Kelly actually wasn’t a reporter, but he did have a question.

“Who’s going to win?” asked Oregon women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves, who had both sisters come over from Germany to play for him.

“Dallas,” said Satou, the 6-4 starting forward in her fourth season with the Wings.

“New York,” said Nyara, the 6-5 rookie reserve forward with the Liberty.

“New York” turned out to be the winning answer Sunday at Barclays Center as the Liberty beat the Wings, 102-93.

Breanna Stewart shot 15-for-20 and scored 19 of her 32 points in the second half. Another of Graves’ former Ducks, Sabrina Ionescu, scored 19 of her 22 after the intermission. The defense stiffened in the final 20 minutes, too.

The Liberty (6-2), who also got a 15-point, 10-assist double-double from Courtney Vandersloot, outscored Dallas 34-17 in the third quarter of this annual Pride game.

“We just tweaked some of our defensive coverages in the second half,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We didn’t allow offensive rebounding . . . We were able to get stops and get out and run.”

And the Saballys?

Well, Satou posted 17 points and 11 rebounds in 37 minutes and 36 seconds for Dallas (5-4) but shot just 6-for-17.

Nyara missed two seasons at Oregon with right ACL tears and didn’t get to play with her sister. After the Liberty made her the fifth overall pick in the WNBA Draft, she sat out last season because of knee surgery. She went scoreless and grabbed four rebounds in 8:43 on Sunday.

This was a big day for the sisters, playing against each other, although they were out there at the same time for only a short time.

“It’s really meaningful,” Satou said. “ . . . This is the first time we’re actively in the WNBA, our first year together. It carries a special weight.”

The Wings cut a 14-point deficit to eight with 6:04 left. Then Arike Ogunbowale, their leader with 25 points, missed on a drive and Stewart converted one.

After a free throw by Dallas’ Natasha Howard, Stewart delivered a 16-footer from the right side and Ionescu canned a three-pointer from the left. The margin moved to 14 again at 93-79.

“People are helping me get into the right positions,” said Stewart, who had no free-throw attempts. “Today the shots went in. I have no comment about the free throws.”

The Liberty trailed 51-45 at halftime before rallying to go up by seven with about three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Satou Sabally hit a three, cutting it to 69-65, but baskets by Ionescu and Stewart and three-pointers by Ionescu and Marine Johannes gave the Liberty a 79-65 lead with 40.6 seconds remaining in the quarter.

“For us,” Ionescu said, “that third quarter is probably the closest we’re going to get to our best basketball.”