Breanna Stewart says refs wrongly told Liberty they had no timeouts left in final seconds of loss to Dream

The Liberty didn’t call a reset timeout before their final possession of the 101-98 overtime loss

Controversy has embroiled the Atlanta Dream's thrilling 101-98 overtime victory over the New York Liberty in Game 2 of their semifinal series after Breanna Stewart accused the officials of incorrectly telling the Liberty that they had no timeouts remaining on the final play of overtime. The miscue could turn out to be very costly to the Liberty, who are now in a 0-2 hole in the best-of-five series, a deficit that no team in WNBA history has been able to overcome. With 4.3 seconds remaining in the extra frame, Angel Reese hit two clutch free throws to push the Dream's lead to three points. The Liberty had the ball and a reset timeout, however, and had sent the game to overtime with a brilliant after-timeout play that freed up Marine Fauthoux for a 3-pointer.

So they still had hope — at least it seemed. The Liberty did not call a timeout and instead tried to throw a long pass to Marine Johannès near midcourt. The ball was tipped, and even though it somehow wound up in Stewart's hands, her heave at the buzzer was nowhere close. In the initial aftermath, it appeared that first-year head coach Chris DeMarco had made a major blunder. But during the postgame press conference, Stewart explained why the Liberty did not call a timeout. "This