The New York Liberty had little difficulty in brushing aside the Washington Mystics as Leonie Fiebich heaped praise on her side's resilience for back-to-back wins.

The defending WNBA champions Liberty (6-0) are off to the best start in franchise history after Friday's 85-63 victory over the Mystics.

Sabrina Ionescu hit four 3-pointers and finished with 28 points, while Jonquel Jones had 14 points and 18 rebounds in a massive double-double.

"Body language. Not showing that we’re tired, that we had a back-to-back," Fiebich said of the keys to victory.

Washington shot 28% (21 of 74) from the field, and 4-for-16 from 3-point range as they struggled to unpick the Liberty defence.

Brittney Sykes did hit two free throws to cut the Mystics' deficit to four in the second half, but Ionescu was fouled as she hit a runner and made the free throw 12 seconds later to spark a 16-0 run.

Washington also had scoring droughts of six-plus minutes in the third quarter and four-plus minutes in the fourth.

“She loves defence,” said New York head coach Brondello of Fiebich. "She was shooting threes, she was cutting, she was posting up. It was good for us."

Successful team effort from the squad pic.twitter.com/In0WVS9Ibh

— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 31, 2025

Brondello called a timeout after the Mystics' 11-2 run threatened a turnaround in the third quarter.

Ionescu then hit an and-1 over Sonia Citron, and that set the tone for the Liberty to never look back.

"She’s one of my favourite players out of this rookie class, someone that I watched in college and saw a lot of myself in her," said Ionescu of Washington rookie Citron.

"You know, I was able to kind of reach out to her when she got drafted, kind of wanting to be someone in the league that she’s able to always come to and just kind of share experiences.

"And so that was kind of a welcome to the league moment."

New York next face the Connecticut Sun, who are no longer winless after defeating Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever on Friday.