Betnijah Laney is a bucket. Not my words: That’s what Liberty rookie Michaela Onyenwere said of her after just the team’s second game of the season.
That consistent offensive output, assisted by a late fourth-quarter burst from Sabrina Ionescu, continued in the Liberty’s 88-81 win over the Dallas Wings Monday at Barclays Center.
“She really did it from training camp and she doesn’t do it in an overbearing way. It really comes off as someone seeing what the best way to win is,” Liberty head coach Walt Hopkins said of Laney’s leadership after the game. “Betnijah’s leading us in so many ways.”
Laney has scored at least 20 points for the first six games of the season, the first Liberty player to do so. Against the Wings, she put up 26 points, two rebounds and three assists to help get the Liberty (5-1) their best start since 2007, when they started the season 5-0.
It’s a step up from even when she was Most Improved Player in 2020 after averaging 17 points per game. She’s made a name for herself on a team filled with stars and champions — Sabrina Ionescu, Natasha Howard, Sami Whitcomb — who can put up big numbers whenever.
But she hasn’t yet reached superstardom, even though her growth has not gone unnoticed. When asked how Laney could reach that next level, Hopkins said: “It’s just continuing to do what she’s doing. I think consistency is the name of the game. It’s what separates the good from the great and the great from the elite. … You know, with Betnijah, I think it’s just a matter of staying the course.”
Over 34 minutes and 37 seconds, Laney was relentless even as the exhaustion of playing three games in four days weighed on. That much was apparent in the number of fouls she and the rest of the team racked up, whether they agreed with the calls or not. Laney was charged with three of the 23 made across the board by the Libs. Onyenwere saw her minutes drop after getting called with four fouls in a three-minute span right out of the half.
“I just think this group is really tough and really resilient,” Hopkins said. “With a tired starting group, I think this could have gone another way. Really I can’t say enough about the whole group.”
At one point in the middle of the third, Laney came out of a team huddle, walked back onto the court, hands on hips and stared up at the score board. She said after the game it was just a simple move to check the score and the time. What transpired on the court, however, was her knocking down another three-point shot and a fadeaway jumper to help close out the quarter.
Ionescu didn’t have her usual fiery start. She committed three turnovers, all on bad passes in just the first quarter. She was benched for a rare 10 total minutes, but emerged in the fourth and knocked down a clutch three-point shot, followed by a pull-up jumper two possessions later.
The Liberty get four days off, then they face Laney’s most recent former team, the Atlanta Dream, on Saturday.
