Sophie Cunningham saves the day for the Mercury with a win over the Liberty 83-82

Phoenix- Sophie Cunningham scored 21 points in a thrilling victory over the Liberty.

The Phoenix Mercury started their playoff run against the New York Liberty, who had the luck of the basketball God's on their side, getting into the playoffs for that final playoff spot after the Sparks and Mystics were defeated in the last game of the season. Phoenix knew that they would have a tough match-up with the youngsters of the Liberty and wanted to be aggressive early on.

Without Diana Taurasi on the floor, the Mercury jumped all over the Liberty early on. From working the inside to hitting their outside shots, Phoenix had everything going on until the Liberty went on a late 13-2 run to cut Phoenix's lead to one at the end of the quarter. For the first time in the game, Phoenix faced a little adversity in the second. Didi Richards and crew were forcing Brittany Griner to take ill-advised shots, doubling her, and forced the ball out of her hands. In a physical battle across the board, Phoenix was shooting around 43% from the field and walked into half down, 41-37.

The second half was just a slow-temp battle between the two teams. Each time it looked like the Mercury could go on a run and gain some type of momentum, the Liberty would go on a run themselves. Sophie Cunningham came alive late in the third and gave the Mercury a spark. She singly handed scored 12 points in the quarter and Phoenix fed off of her energy. Phoenix walked into the fourth quarter with a two-point lead.

With under two minutes left in regulation and down by three, the Mercury was in scramble mode trying to find some type of offense. Cunningham hit a three to put the Mercury up with under .50 seconds in the game. It looked like the game was over, but New York hit a game tying three with two seconds left. The Mercury got a lucky break when Liberty fouled on the ensuing possession. One of their players hit 1 out of 2 on their free throws and escaped with a W to face the Seattle Storm.