#Sabrina Ionescu sizzles in historic 3-Point Contest while Aces top Liberty in Skills Challenge

Sami Whitcomb didn’t stand a chance.

Sabrina Ionescu sizzled in a stunning shooting display Friday en route to a win at the WNBA All-Star 3-Point Contest. The New York Liberty guard hit 25 out of 27 shots and tallied 37 of a possible 40 points en route to victory in the final.

Whitcomb followed up with a 24-point effort in the final turn of the contest. It’s a number that would be competitive most nights, but fell well short of Ionescu’s historic effort, the best round in the history of the contest.

Ionescu missed the first shot of her final round, then reeled off 20 straight makes to put the contest away. The miss on her 22nd attempt was her last. She finished the contest by hitting all five shots from the right corner. She connected on all the balls in her money-ball rack (2 points each) and each of the longer-distance Starry balls on the wing (3 points each).

“I was just focused on making one at a time,” Ionescu told ESPN after her win. “I wasn’t sure how many I’d missed, but I knew it wasn’t a lot.”

How did she do it?

“I practice,” she continued. “I practice a lot of these live reps, so I’m able to do it today.”

The 3-point win more than makes up for a second-place finish Ionescu’s Liberty team posted to a Las Vegas Aces duo earlier Friday.

3-Point Contest

Final round

Sabrina Ionescu (Liberty): 37 points
Sami Whitcomb (Seattle Storm): 24 points
Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings): 11 points

First-round results (Top 3 advance)

Whitcomb: 28 points
Ionescu: 26
Ogunbowale: 21 points
DiJonai Carrington (Connecticut Sun): 18 points
Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana Fever): 15 points
Jackie Young (Aces): 15 points

Aces top Liberty in Skills Challenge

In a finals matchup of players from WNBA super-teams, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum of the Aces defeated Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot of the Liberty in the All-Star Skills Challenge.

The Aces win kicked off the weekend’s All-Star festivities with a victory for the hometown team in Las Vegas.

The Liberty (47.8 seconds) and Aces (45.9 seconds) duos both advanced to the finals from the first round by posting the two fastest times of the four competing teams. Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally of the Wings (52.6 seconds) and Cheyenne Parker and Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream (58.7 seconds) were eliminated.

That set up a finals matchup of players many predict will eventually face off in the WNBA Finals.

Ionescu, who won last year’s competition, struggled to hit 3-pointers in the final round as the Liberty posted a time of 58 seconds, more than 10 seconds slower than their first-round tally. After Plum’s turn with the ball, Gray had plenty of time to complete her section of the course, and her 3-pointer sealed the win with 13.7 seconds to spare. She didn’t miss a shot in the final round.

The Skills Challenge involved four teams of two teammates competing on an skills course. Players passed a ball through a hoop, dribbled around obstacles and connected on multiple shots, including midrange jumpers and 3-pointers.

Friday’s festivities kicked off the WNBA’s All-Star weekend with the league’s All-Star Game scheduled for Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).