6:06 p.m. ET
Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
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- Mechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s collegiate basketball and other collegiate sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984 and has been with ESPN since 1996.
New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, 24, became the youngest player in WNBA history to record multiple career triple-doubles when she accomplished the feat in Sunday’s 88-86 loss to Chicago Sky.
She also became the first player in league history to have a triple-double in the first three quarters of a game.
Ionescu had 27 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists for her second triple-double since entering the WNBA as the No. 1 in 2020 from Oregon, where she had an NCAA-record 26 triple-doubles in her collegiate career. Ionescu’s first triple-double in the WNBA came in May 2021.
“I don’t care about the triple-double, we didn’t win,” said Ionescu on Sunday. “I’m just trying to do my part, to be better every day, to keep learning from my teammates, from this coaching staff.”
However, Ionescu’s performances impress others. She nearly had a triple-double in the Liberty’s win over Minnesota on Tuesday — 26 points, eight rebounds, eight assists despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter — and she was the catalyst for New York in the recent 4-2 run from a seven -Games-Lost Streak. Ionescu has averaged 24.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.5 assists over those six games.
When asked what helped improve Ionescu’s game, Liberty manager Sandy Brondello said: “Just a lot of confidence and knowing we believe in her. She’s a great player out there and she’s only going to get better.”
Ionescu is the only player, aside from Chicago’s Candace Parker, to have had multiple triple-doubles in WNBA regular-season games. Parker got her second on May 22 at the age of 36. Parker’s first was in 2017 when she played for the Los Angeles Sparks.
Parker’s Sky teammate Courtney Vandersloot and retired player Sheryl Swoopes are the only other WNBA players to have had multiple career triple-doubles, including playoff games. For Vandersloot, they came in the postseason last year and in the regular season in 2018. For Swoopes, it was 1999 (regular season) and 2005 (playoffs).