Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com
WNBA Exhibition a Celebration For Ionescu, Sabally
05/12/25 | Women's Basketball
The two UO women's basketball alums got to play in Matthew Knight Arena one more time Monday night.
It only took 48 hours for Sandy Brondello to fully appreciate the legacy two of her players with the New York Liberty established in Eugene.
On Saturday, Brondello and the Liberty touched down at Eugene Airport. Two days later, they were in Matthew Knight Arena to play a preseason exhibition against the Toyota Antelopes, and Brondello met with media two hours prior to the game.
The exhibition capped Brondello's first-ever visit to Eugene. During her short time in town, the Liberty head coach gained a new understanding of the place Sabrina Ionescu and Nyara Sabally hold in the community's collective heart.
"Sabrina and Nyara, this is their city," Brondello said. "… It's great to come back where at all started."
Just over five years after the pandemic robbed them of a chance to play for a national title, Ionescu and Sabally were back on the court in Matthew Knight Arena on Monday as pros. They helped the Liberty win an exhibition against a Japanese club, Toyota Antelopes, 84-61.
Ionescu scored a game-high 25 points, making six three-pointers before leaving the court to waves of cheers cascading down from the seats in MKA.
"This is something in my career I'll never forget, being able to come back and play a game at the University of Oregon," she said afterward.
Prior to the opening tip, Ionescu said, she had to remind herself to refocus for the game, so caught-up was she in the festive atmosphere generated by the sell-out crowd of 12,364 fans. They wore her No. 20 jersey, in both Ducks and Liberty colors, and also the No. 6 she sported in helping Team USA win Olympic gold last summer in Paris. They painted signs, and clamored for autographs, before, during and after the game.
Sabally finished with seven points and led the Liberty with six rebounds. That performance capped a day that began with the Liberty announcing they've picked up the option on her contract for the 2026 season, after she helped New York win the WNBA title during a breakout postseason last year.
"Obviously it's a pretty special moment for me," Sabally said. "Being able to come back here and experience that with the crowd and this team means a lot."
The weekend began for Ionescu with a youth clinic Sunday hosted by her SI20 Foundation. Then she was back on the court in Matthew Knight Arena on Monday evening, a small bit of closure after being denied the chance to help the Ducks compete for a national championship in 2020.
Between the third and fourth quarters, "Shout" echoed through the building to the delight of the fans — and the two UO alums on the Liberty bench. Invigorated by the moment, Ionescu made a trio of three-pointers early in the fourth, the last with 6:03 left on the clock.
At that point a timeout was called, and Brondello told Ionescu she would take in the rest of the game from the bench. Ionescu walked to center court to acknowledge the fans one more time.
"This was just a thank you; this wasn't any type of celebration for me," Ionescu said. "This was me wanting to celebrate the University of Oregon and what it's done for my career."
Watching from behind the Liberty's bench was a host of Ionescu's family members, including her husband — former UO football star Hroniss Grasu — and members of his family. Seated in the front row was Andrei Ionescu, the older brother of Sabrina and her twin brother Eddy.
Not quite a decade earlier, Andrei had essentially the same seat for the start of Sabrina's college career. Monday, he was back in town to watch her be feted as one of the all-time great stars in UO athletics history.
About an hour before tip-off Monday, Ionescu had yet to take the court for warmups. That she was about to do so became apparent when a chorus of young voices lining the tunnel from the Liberty's locker room began to shout her name.
"It's home to her, and it's always going to have a special spot in her heart," Andrei said. "Being able to come back and feel the love from the fans, I think it just fuels her. And that's very special."
Andrei took a run around campus prior to the game, he said. He passed a mural featuring his younger sister, still visible more than five years after her last game in an Oregon uniform.
"It's been some time since that's gone up, and it's amazing that after so much time it's still here," Sabrina told him, he recounted prior to the game Monday. "She was referencing that love and support she gets from this town. In a couple words, I think it empowers and fuels her, and it always feels like home."
For as empowered as Ionescu may feel being back in Eugene and celebrated by Duck fans, the empowerment she has provided future generations was apparent too, in all the young girls clamoring for autographs Monday. Also seated courtside for the game, working on the UO radio broadcast, was Bev Smith — whose eminence as the biggest star in Oregon women's basketball history basically felt untouchable until Ionescu came along.
"I think she's been really intentional about not only what is my legacy as a basketball player," Smith said, "but what is my impact in the community, what's my impact on the game outside of the court, what's my impact in helping young kids, what's my impact on being a dignified, respectful, true ambassador for the game of basketball and women's sports?
"She's just always had that knack and that uncanny sense of, I need to be something bigger than myself and leave something that makes not just the game better, but our community and our women's movement better."
Smith played at Oregon from 1978-82, shortly after the passing of Title IX, the landmark legislation that paved the way for women to fight for equal footing in the sporting landscape. It's been a long, slow climb to an event like Monday, when Matthew Knight Arena was packed to the rafters for a non-counting game between two teams of elite women's basketball players.
"Ever since 1972, we've been given a chance," Smith said. "The door was opened and we had the opportunity to put ourselves on a big stage, and it's grown and grown — to the credit of many women and also men who've been a part of it. And I think it's hit a tipping point, and now this is going to be normal. And I really feel that. …"
"I think the difference between men's and women's sports is their connection with the fans. Sabrina and her group let the fans here in Oregon feel like they were part of their success. They would go into the stands and high-five and made it so the fans felt like it wasn't transactional, it's transformational. And Sabrina has been about that."
On Saturday, Brondello and the Liberty touched down at Eugene Airport. Two days later, they were in Matthew Knight Arena to play a preseason exhibition against the Toyota Antelopes, and Brondello met with media two hours prior to the game.
The exhibition capped Brondello's first-ever visit to Eugene. During her short time in town, the Liberty head coach gained a new understanding of the place Sabrina Ionescu and Nyara Sabally hold in the community's collective heart.
"Sabrina and Nyara, this is their city," Brondello said. "… It's great to come back where at all started."
Just over five years after the pandemic robbed them of a chance to play for a national title, Ionescu and Sabally were back on the court in Matthew Knight Arena on Monday as pros. They helped the Liberty win an exhibition against a Japanese club, Toyota Antelopes, 84-61.
Ionescu scored a game-high 25 points, making six three-pointers before leaving the court to waves of cheers cascading down from the seats in MKA.
"This is something in my career I'll never forget, being able to come back and play a game at the University of Oregon," she said afterward.
Prior to the opening tip, Ionescu said, she had to remind herself to refocus for the game, so caught-up was she in the festive atmosphere generated by the sell-out crowd of 12,364 fans. They wore her No. 20 jersey, in both Ducks and Liberty colors, and also the No. 6 she sported in helping Team USA win Olympic gold last summer in Paris. They painted signs, and clamored for autographs, before, during and after the game.
Sabally finished with seven points and led the Liberty with six rebounds. That performance capped a day that began with the Liberty announcing they've picked up the option on her contract for the 2026 season, after she helped New York win the WNBA title during a breakout postseason last year.
"Obviously it's a pretty special moment for me," Sabally said. "Being able to come back here and experience that with the crowd and this team means a lot."
The weekend began for Ionescu with a youth clinic Sunday hosted by her SI20 Foundation. Then she was back on the court in Matthew Knight Arena on Monday evening, a small bit of closure after being denied the chance to help the Ducks compete for a national championship in 2020.
Between the third and fourth quarters, "Shout" echoed through the building to the delight of the fans — and the two UO alums on the Liberty bench. Invigorated by the moment, Ionescu made a trio of three-pointers early in the fourth, the last with 6:03 left on the clock.
At that point a timeout was called, and Brondello told Ionescu she would take in the rest of the game from the bench. Ionescu walked to center court to acknowledge the fans one more time.
"This was just a thank you; this wasn't any type of celebration for me," Ionescu said. "This was me wanting to celebrate the University of Oregon and what it's done for my career."
Watching from behind the Liberty's bench was a host of Ionescu's family members, including her husband — former UO football star Hroniss Grasu — and members of his family. Seated in the front row was Andrei Ionescu, the older brother of Sabrina and her twin brother Eddy.
Not quite a decade earlier, Andrei had essentially the same seat for the start of Sabrina's college career. Monday, he was back in town to watch her be feted as one of the all-time great stars in UO athletics history.
About an hour before tip-off Monday, Ionescu had yet to take the court for warmups. That she was about to do so became apparent when a chorus of young voices lining the tunnel from the Liberty's locker room began to shout her name.
"It's home to her, and it's always going to have a special spot in her heart," Andrei said. "Being able to come back and feel the love from the fans, I think it just fuels her. And that's very special."
Andrei took a run around campus prior to the game, he said. He passed a mural featuring his younger sister, still visible more than five years after her last game in an Oregon uniform.
"It's been some time since that's gone up, and it's amazing that after so much time it's still here," Sabrina told him, he recounted prior to the game Monday. "She was referencing that love and support she gets from this town. In a couple words, I think it empowers and fuels her, and it always feels like home."
For as empowered as Ionescu may feel being back in Eugene and celebrated by Duck fans, the empowerment she has provided future generations was apparent too, in all the young girls clamoring for autographs Monday. Also seated courtside for the game, working on the UO radio broadcast, was Bev Smith — whose eminence as the biggest star in Oregon women's basketball history basically felt untouchable until Ionescu came along.
"I think she's been really intentional about not only what is my legacy as a basketball player," Smith said, "but what is my impact in the community, what's my impact on the game outside of the court, what's my impact in helping young kids, what's my impact on being a dignified, respectful, true ambassador for the game of basketball and women's sports?
"She's just always had that knack and that uncanny sense of, I need to be something bigger than myself and leave something that makes not just the game better, but our community and our women's movement better."
Smith played at Oregon from 1978-82, shortly after the passing of Title IX, the landmark legislation that paved the way for women to fight for equal footing in the sporting landscape. It's been a long, slow climb to an event like Monday, when Matthew Knight Arena was packed to the rafters for a non-counting game between two teams of elite women's basketball players.
"Ever since 1972, we've been given a chance," Smith said. "The door was opened and we had the opportunity to put ourselves on a big stage, and it's grown and grown — to the credit of many women and also men who've been a part of it. And I think it's hit a tipping point, and now this is going to be normal. And I really feel that. …"
"I think the difference between men's and women's sports is their connection with the fans. Sabrina and her group let the fans here in Oregon feel like they were part of their success. They would go into the stands and high-five and made it so the fans felt like it wasn't transactional, it's transformational. And Sabrina has been about that."
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