Better news for the WNBA: a sizable portion of the enthusiastic crowd that attended Clark and the Fever stayed for the Los Angeles Sparks vs. Las Vegas Aces second half of the doubleheader. That was the third-largest WNBA audience on ABC in history, with an average viewership of 1.34 million. Last week, the second game’s audience was significantly smaller, even though Clark had a better viewership in the first half of the ESPN2 doubleheader. That night’s Phoenix Mercury vs. Aces game drew 464,000 viewers, a mere 5% increase over the same game last year.

The more important lesson I learned from this is that the second game’s viewership increased. The WNBA and its media allies are aware that viewers will be drawn to Clark and See her perform with the Fever.

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time in seventeen years, the New York Liberty defeated the Seattle Storm 74–63 on Monday night behind 20 points from Sabrina Ionescu.

Seattle Storm 63, New York Liberty 74: Box score

For New York, which hasn’t won its opening four games of the season since 2007, Breanna Stewart contributed 16 points and 11 rebounds. The Liberty, having just made an appearance in the WNBA Finals, won their first five games of the previous season before faltering to a 16–18 record.

Seattle(1-3) was led by Jewell Loyd, who finished with 13 points and 9 boards.

Halfway through the second quarter, New York led 50–40. Then, they scored the next seven points, five of which came from Ionescu, to increase their lead to 17. The Storm were down by 15 points at the start of the fourth quarter, but they were only able to draw as close as nine after scoring the opening six points.

Ionescu led New York to a 27–15 advantage in the first quarter with six points and five assists in the first ten minutes of play. On Sunday, the Storm were in Washington for the second leg of a back-to-back.

An ankle issue forced star forward Nneka Ogwumike, who signed as a free agency in the offseason, to miss her second straight game.

With just nine points scored by each team in the second quarter, the game slowed down as New York led 36–24 at the half. Between them, the teams shot 2 for 24 from beyond the 3-point arc. New York was 1 of 11 and Seattle missed 12 of 13. In the victory over Indiana on Saturday, the Liberty made 15 3-pointers.

Wednesday, Seattle Storm will host the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark.

Chicago Sky and rookie Angel Reese are the guests of the New York Liberty on Thursday. Teresa Weatherspoon, a former Liberty standout, is the Sky’s coach.