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. New York regained control and went back up by as many as 8, but Carleton gave Portland the lead again at 94-91 with 2:52 remaining.
The Fire still weren’t in the clear. Marine Johannès hit an unbelievable runner from 3-point range at the end of the shot clock to tie the score, and the Liberty went ahead by 2 in the final minute on two free throws from Jones.
But second-year point guard Carla Leite, who had hurt her ankle earlier in the evening, blew by Jones in isolation to tie the score at 96 with 27 seconds to play. New York then turned over the ball on a rarely seen offensive three-second violation. That allowed Portland to put the ball in Carleton’s hands for the win, and though her 3-pointer didn’t find the net, it did find Barker for the offensive rebound.
The Fire don’t even have their full roster yet, with Karlie Samuelson and Sug Sutton injured to start the season. They had enough to eke out their first victory in dramatic fashion, a moment no one in Portland will soon forget.
Leite finished with 21 points and a game-high six assists, and Kamiah Smalls had 13 points off the bench in her debut for Portland. The Fire forced 18 turnovers, leading to 25 points, including the game-winning points.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Portland Fire, WNBA
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