NEW YORK — The Liberty made sure to exchange pleasantries early.

With Kayla Thornton in town, the franchise welcomed her back with a pregame tribute video and the forward received her 2024 championship ring at half court.

Everything after that was unpleasant.

What followed was a 95-67 blowout victory over the Golden State Valkyries, which kept the Liberty undefeated in the 2025 season. The Valkyries, the WNBA’s newest franchise, are in their inaugural season after an offseason of signings and an expansion draft. The lack of star power was on full display Tuesday.

But that isn’t the Liberty’s problem as players on that loaded roster all took turns in contributing to the blowout. Tuesday’s point total makes it the fourth time the Liberty have recorded at least 90 points in as many games.

“I think offensively, we really want to push the pace. We want to move the ball,” Breanna Stewart said. "We want to make sure that we know we’re putting teams constantly in rotations and finding the best shot available. So whether we score 90 or whatever we score, I feel like, as a player, we’re scoring a lot, and we feel like we can be scoring more. There’s still things that we can get better at offensively.”

Stewart led the way with 24 points, three assists and three steals. Stewart started the onslaught with nine first-quarter points that contributed to an early 10-2 run. Defense created easy offense and in the half court, the ball skipped around. It led to a 27-10 advantage for the Liberty at the end of the first quarter.

Then Marine Johannes stepped forward to showcase her theatrics.

The French spark plug came off the bench to drain four 3-pointers in the second quarter. Johannes’ most highlight-worthy trey came at the 8:44 mark in the second, when she tossed up a one-legged trey to extend her team’s lead to 21. She went on to make two more treys before the final buzzer in her 18-point outing.

After scoring eight points in the first three games of the season, Johannes went 6 of 11 from downtown Tuesday. She said she was “too passive” in the Liberty’s last game — 0 for 2 with zero points in 15 minutes against the Fever — and decided to play with more aggression after a chat with head coach Sandy Brondello.

“It’s never easy,” Johannes said. “Every game is different. Just my mentality … keep playing with confidence.”

The Liberty led 48-29 at halftime. The Valkyries, though, fought back to avoid an overwhelming rout. Golden State got within 11 points after Carla Leite’s layup at the 2:08 mark. The lead shortened due to sloppy play and a lapse in defense from the Libs. Jonquel Jones even picked up a technical foul after being called for her fourth personal of the game.

Thornton and Veronica Burton — both former Dallas Wings teammates — combined for 13 points in the third, but the lead again stretched to 16 at the end of the third.

Brondello noted that the Liberty allowed too many open 3s to start the third and didn’t finish defensive possessions strongly on shot attempts. But she said “that’s something we can fix.”

Natalie Nakase’s Valkyries team fought hard, but not much could be done against a Liberty team opposing no real star power. They lost the final period, 28-16, as Brondello kept her starters in for a majority of the final period.

It took a 25-point lead with 3:15 remaining for Brondello to pull her starters out the game.

Jones finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Sabrina Ionescu recorded eight points, six assists and five rebounds. Natasha Cloud scored five points and dished 10 dimes, moving past Seattle’s Skylar Diggins for 10th-place on the all-time assist leaderboards.

Thornton finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four steals in her homecoming. Burton also scored 13 points to go along with six assists and four rebounds.

Golden State fell to 2-2 on the season. The two teams will meet again on Thursday night at Barclays Center.

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