Cal Basketball: Layshia Clarendon Teams Up With Sabrina Ionescu in WNBA

Layshia Clarendon scored 20 points in her New York Liberty debut, but it was the unveiling of prize rookie Sabrina Ionescu that took top billing on opening day of the WNBA season on Saturday.

Ionescu, the East Bay native and former Oregon star, had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists in her first game after being drafted No. 1 by the Liberty.

None of it was enough to overcome the Seattle Storm — the preseason favorite to win the WNBA — which had control much of the game and won 87-71 in a game played in the bubble at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Players wore Breonna Taylor’s name on the back of their jerseys and “Black Lives Matter” was painted on the court. Players observed a 26-second moment of silence before the game to honor Taylor, 26, who was shot and killed on March 13 by Louisville police, who were executing a no-knock search warrant of her apartment.

Clarendon, a 29-year-old former Cal star, had her highest-scoring game in three seasons. Signed as a free agent by the Liberty during the offseason, she will partner in the team’s backcourt with Ionescu.

“I think they do a really good job of complementing one another,” coach Walt Hopkins said of Clarendon and IUonescu. “I think that what we need to do more of is get them into off-the-ball split-actions. With a team that’s really aggressive against the pick-and-roll, I think that it was a really good game for us to see kind of a weakness in the way that we’re attacking defenses.”

Ionescu was generally satisfied with her performance, despite shooting 0-for-8 on 3’s and committing four turnovers.

“I’ll live with 12, six and four in my first game against the best team in the league,” Ionescu said. “I’m not used to having to take eight threes a game. That’s something that I’m not used to. I’m used to being able to come down and facilitate and now I have to definitely be more of a scorer.

“I’m not going to get too down on myself because we play in a couple of days and I have to learn from those mistakes and continue to grow.”

Breanna Stewart led Seattle with 18 points in her return after missing last season with a tor Achilles.

Meanwhile, former Cal stars Kristine Anigwe and Reshanda Gray made modest contributions to the Los Angeles Sparks’ 99-76 win over the Phoenix Mercury.

Anigwe, beginning her second season with her third team after being a top-10 WNBA draft pick in 2019, had four points, three rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot in 14 minutes. Gray was scoreless but had five rebounds and an assist in seven minutes.

Former Stanford star Nneka Ogwumike led the Sparks with 21 points.

.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

Click the “follow” button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.