“Sami’s combination of defense, passing getting us into stuff, she did everything,” Hopkins gushed after Whitcomb went 10-of-16 from the field, including a sizzling 6-of-11 from long range, to help New York to its second consecutive win.

“She played great defense to boot,” Hopkins added. “When Sami’s locked in like that, it helps everybody. From the outset she was really, really locked in.”

Whitcomb scored 15 first-half points to stake the Liberty (10-9) to a 51-47 advantage at halftime.

Her early 3-point barrage helped New York to a record 15 shots made from beyond the arc as well as adding seven rebounds, four assists and three steals to her impressive line.

Averaging 11.9 points per contest. Whitcomb put up a career-best 30 points in a victory at Atlanta on June 26 and has also contributed to the Liberty’s first two-game winning streak since May, when they opened the campaign 5-1 before falling into a 3-8 funk.

Despite her heroics Monday, Whitcomb was unable to keep the Liberty in front as they trailed 81-80 with 4:37 remaining in regulation before Kylee Shook converted a three-point play to put New York in front to stay.

Whitcomb hit a pair of 3-pointers and an 18-footer down the stretch to secure New York’s first 10-win campaign since 2019.

All-Star forward Betnijah Laney added 18 points, Jazmine Jones had 16 and Sabrina Ionescu added 13 points and a career high-tying 12 assists for the Liberty, who will be back in action Friday night at Indiana.

Laney, who has scored in double digits in all but one of New York’s first 19 contests, is the only player in the league averaging at least 19 points and five assists per contest.

Ionescu, who has been limited by an ankle injury for most of the first half of the season, drilled 3-of-5 3-pointers in Monday’s win.

Isabelle Harrison led Dallas with 23 points and a team-high seven boards, but it wasn’t enough as the seventh-place Wings (9-10) fell one-hallf game behind sixth-place New York in the WNBA standings.

“Sometimes it’s nights like that,” Dallas head coach and former Liberty standout Vickie Johnson told the Associated Press.

“Sometimes the ball goes in the basket.”

It certainly did for Whitcomb on Monday night.

GIVE ME LIBERTY: Didi Richards, who left Saturday’s come-from-behind 82-79 win over Washington here with an apparent neck injury, returned to action Monday and logged four minutes. The former Baylor University star suffered a spinal cord injury with the Bears last season, but appeared fit and ready for action in her first game since suffering the injury over the weekend. … After visiting Indiana on Friday, the Liberty will host the Connecticut Sun in Brooklyn on Sunday at 2 p.m. … Michaela Onyenwere, the Liberty’s first pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft, has won back-to-back WNBA Rookie of the Month awards. The 6-foot Rookie of the Year front-runner averaged 8.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in June, including a career-best 18-point performance on 6-of-8 shooting vs. the Atlanta Dream on June 26. Onyenwere is the first rookie in franchise history to win consecutive Rookie of the Month honors since 2010.

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