Sting 73

Liberty 67

First Becky Hammon missed an open 3-pointer that would have given the Liberty the lead with 27 seconds left, and then Cathrine Kraayeveld’s effort from beyond the arc was off, as well.

And just like that, the Liberty, who overcame a brutal first half in which they trailed by as many as 15 points to take the lead with 9:45 left in the game, saw the possibility of a third straight win vanish.

“This was a blown opportunity,” Hammon said after the Liberty fell to 4-10 following their 73-67 loss to the Charlotte Sting (3-11) in front of 7,765 at the Garden. “And opportunities in this league don’t come along very often and you can’t let them slip away. So this irritates me.”

It would be hard not to be bothered.

The Liberty were dreadful in the first two quarters, tying a home franchise-record low by scoring just 16 points in the first half. They shot an incredibly low 16 percent (4-for-25) from the field before the intermission. The team scored just eight points in each of the first two quarters, rushing shots and handling the ball carelessly.

Hammon said that not much needed to be uttered at the half.

“We played like [garbage],” Hammon said. “We shot the ball like [garbage]. When you don’t make shots and you don’t get stops, that’s a bad combo. When you’re playing like [garbage], you don’t need to hear you’re playing like [garbage].”

Well said.

Whatever was, or was not, said was effective, as the team stormed back in the third quarter, scoring 34 points. But it wasn’t enough.

“We exerted so much energy coming back, we kind of ran out of it at the end,” said Hammon, who had 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. “And down the stretch, we didn’t do the right things.”

Charlotte’s Tangela Smith hit a layup with 1:25 to go to give the Sting the lead for good, and former Rutgers standout Tammy Sutton-Brown hit a pair of free throws to put the game out of reach.

Despite the defeat, coach Pat Coyle doesn’t think her team will slip with the loss.

“We’re going to rebound from it,” Coyle said. “You’re going to have games like this.”

Not necessarily. This one was especially ugly, from the awful first half to the inability to close out coach Muggsy Bogues’ struggling team at the end. The Liberty have a chance to redeem themselves on Friday at the Garden against San Antonio.