Stewart says Liberty were told they did not have a reset timeout in OT

ATLANTA — The New York Liberty opted not to advance the ball for a better shot at a tying 3-pointer, then said after their loss Wednesday night that officials told them they didn't have a reset timeout left.

The Liberty inbounded the ball under the basket, forcing them to go the length of the court, after Angel Reese made two free throws to give the Atlanta Dream a three-point lead with 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime. The broadcast of the game showed that the Liberty had their reset, which is a WNBA rule allowing a team to advance the ball to halfcourt without going back to its bench to huddle.

Breanna Stewart missed a 32-foot attempt and the Dream took a 2-0 lead in the WNBA semifinals with their 101-98 victory.

WNBA rules state that “each team is entitled to one Reset in the final two minutes of the fourth period and one Reset in the last two minutes of any overtime period.”

The Liberty had used both regular timeouts in overtime — they lost a coach's challenge to cost them one — but hadn't used their reset. Yet Stewart said they were told it wasn't available.

“This is not blaming the refs, but when I ask both refs if we have a reset timeout again, and they tell us no, and we leave the game with a reset timeout, it's pretty frustrating,” Stewart said. “Yeah, OK, I kind of got a good look at the end, but we'd just like to have some clarity on that situation as well.”

Stewart clarified that the conversation with the officials happened while Reese was at the line.

“I asked Kevin (referee Kevin Fahy), I said, ‘Do we have a reset timeout?’ And he said, ‘I’m going to check with the table.’ So then he goes to Fatou (crew chief Fatou Cissoko-Stephens) and she said no. So he told me no,” Stewart said. “Of course, who knows what would have happened to end the game, but we would have had hopefully a better shot on goal.”

The WNBA's pool report, conducted with Cissoko-Stephens, contradicted Stewart.

“Stewart was standing behind referee Fahy when he confirmed with his partner between Reese's penalty free throws that New York did indeed have a reset timeout remaining,” Cissoko-Stephens said.

Further in the pool report, the league clarified the protocols around timeout tracking.

“Available timeouts are tracked by the scorer's table and statistical staff," Cissoko-Stephens said. “Teams are responsible for managing and tracking their timeout usage throughout the game. Officials may confirm the status of timeouts with the table when necessary, but they do not officially track timeouts.”

New York coach Chris DeMarco, like Stewart, said he was told the team did not have a timeout, which referees also disputed.

“There was no direction communication with the officials (and) the team,” Cissoko-Stephens said.

Atlanta coach Karl Smesko was surprised the Liberty didn't advance the ball.

“I thought they had a timeout left,” Smesko said. “I was expecting it to be advanced, but it wasn't. So we had to play, and fortunately we were able to get the stop.”

The Liberty made an official inquiry with the WNBA.

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