In an emotional return to Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena, Sabrina Ionescu, star of the New York Liberty, was greeted with a deafening ovation. The player, who had not stepped on the university court for five years, expressed her affection for the Ducks before a devoted crowd.<\/p>\n\n
Ionescu, a three-time WNBA All-Star, was joined by her teammate and also former Oregon player, Nyara Sabally, for a preseason game against the Toyota Antelopes of Japan. This match was part of a series of WNBA preseason events that have brought stars together with their former college fans.<\/p>\n\n
The game was a party for Ionescu, who scored 25 points in the 84-61 victory over the Antelopes. Sabally contributed 7 points to the scoreboard.<\/p>\n\n
The fans paid tribute to Ionescu with a standing ovation after she scored a three-pointer from the half-court logo, with 6:03 left in the game. The player responded with a wave to the fans and putting her hand over her heart.<\/p>\n\n
It’s great to be back home.<\/p>Sabrina Ionescu<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n
Ionescu culminated her college career as the all-time leader in triple-doubles in the NCAA, both men’s and women’s, with a total of 26. She was selected as the No. 1 pick by the Liberty in the 2020 WNBA draft.<\/p>\n\n
In recognition of her career, Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson declared Monday as “Sabrina Ionescu Day.” Ionescu, who won a WNBA title with the Liberty last year, also earned a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n\n
I’m glad they receive your affection. They deserve it. Both have grown a lot since they were here, and obviously, being able to win the championship (of the WNBA) last year, come back here and celebrate with the fans.<\/p>Natasha Cloud<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n
The Liberty announced that they exercised Sabally’s fourth-year option, which will keep her on the team through the 2026 season.<\/p>\n\nThe owner of the Liberty, Clara Wu Tsai, and Oregon coach Kelly Graves were in attendance at the game.\n\n
It’s a really great idea. The preseason has been visiting many of the college campuses of its star players and Sabrina is a franchise player for us and has done wonderful things. So it’s great to go back to where it all began.<\/p>Sandy Brondello<\/cite><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an emotional return to Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena, Sabrina Ionescu, star of the New York Liberty, was greeted with a deafening ovation. The player, who had not stepped on the university court for five years, expressed her affection for the Ducks before a devoted crowd. Ionescu, a three-time WNBA All-Star, was joined by her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1949,1950,1951,382],"class_list":{"0":"post-5545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-new-york-liberty","9":"tag-oregon","10":"tag-sabrina-ionescu","11":"tag-wnba"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}