Patty Coyle refused to bask in the glow of her first win in the WNBA after the Liberty avenged a 26-point loss to the Sacramento Monarchs Tuesday night with a 73-66 win at the Garden.

When asked how it felt to have gotten the win after six years as an assistant with the team, Coyle said, “Honestly, that thought hasn’t even crossed my mind yet.”

Instead, she focused on the trouble the Liberty had with the Monarchs until a late 12-2 run propelled them to victory.

“I thought we were sluggish, but there was better effort,” Coyle said. “I’ll think about this win when I’m in the Caribbean in December.”

It would be hard to blame Coyle for not reflecting too much on the hard-fought victory, since she had to prepare her 8-9 team quickly for tonight’s game at the Garden against cellar-dwelling Washington (6-8).

And she has to do it with a new assistant, former Mystics head coach Marianne Stanley, and little else.

While most other teams have at least two or three assistants, Coyle has been forced to take on even more added responsibilities, as well as deal with the fact that her potential replacement is sitting next to her on the bench.

Coyle insists that she doesn’t mind and that job security isn’t even on her mind.

“Being on the floor calms me,” Coyle said. “I think that’s the best thing for me right now. Plus, you don’t want to bring in another person now and have to teach them everything. You may as well do it yourself. That’s all I’m worried about.”

The same almost could be said of Becky Hammon and Vickie Johnson, both of whom have seen their minutes go up dramatically, thanks in part to injuries to Crystal Robinson (broken finger) and Tari Phillips (broken hand).

Although Coyle intended to use the bench more, she left the duo on the floor for all but three minutes on Tuesday.

“Whatever Patty wants us to do, we’re ready,” Hammon said. “There’s a new tone here and we want to keep it going.”