Mercury oust Liberty behind Thomas' triple-double

PHOENIX -- Alyssa Thomas had the archetypal 20-point triple-double successful WNBA postseason history, and the Phoenix Mercury precocious to the 2nd circular of the WNBA playoffs by eliminating the defending champion New York Liberty 79-73 successful Game 3 connected Friday night.

Satou Sabally added 23 points and 12 rebounds for the fourth-seeded Mercury, who play astatine top-seeded Minnesota connected Sunday to commencement the best-of-five semifinal round.

Thomas, who had 11 rebounds and 11 assists, has 5 of the 7 WNBA playoff triple-doubles.

Sami Whitcomb scored 13 points and Kahleah Copper had 12 points and 9 rebounds for the Mercury, who had a 49-33 vantage connected the boards. DeWanna Bonner had 8 rebounds to walk Candace Parker for the astir boards successful playoff past with 614.

Breanna Stewart, 5 days aft spraining the MCL successful her near genu successful overtime of a Game 1 win, scored 30 points, including the past 14 successful the 4th fourth for the Liberty. Sabrina Ionescu added 22 but the remainder of the Liberty struggled.

There were 5 ties and 13 pb changes done 3 quarters, which ended with Phoenix connected apical 60-59, but New York ne'er led successful the fourth.

Stewart's three-point play had the Liberty wrong 65-64 with 6:51 to play. But Thomas had a basket, 2 assists and a rebound to get her ninth triple-double of this season, arsenic the Mercury surged up 72-64 with 5:36 to play.

Stewart made 2 escaped throws -- she was 12 of 15 from the enactment -- to marque it 76-73 with 1:10 to play. The Liberty had a turnover and 3 misses successful the past infinitesimal and finished 7 of 32 from 3-point range, including 1 for 17 successful the 2nd half.

The Mercury led by 12 successful the 2nd 4th but with Ionescu scoring 12 points the Liberty chopped it to 45-41 astatine halftime.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.