Liberty's Breanna Stewart Calls Out Refs After Unused Timeout in Loss to Dream, 'Pretty Frustrating'

New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart voiced her frustration with the officiating toward the end of Wednesday's 101-98 WNBA semifinals loss to the Atlanta Dream.

The Dream's Angel Reese sank a pair of free throws to put the Dream up by three with 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime. New York opted against using its reset timeout, and Stewart had to settle for a long-range heave in the waning moments.

The two-time MVP said in her postgame press conference the referees told her the Liberty didn't have a reset timeout, hence their inbounding the ball from beneath Atlanta's basket:

Liberty coach Chris DeMarco echoed Stewart's account.

Fatou Cissoko-Stephens, the game's lead official, pushed back on that narrative.

"Stewart was standing behind referee (Kevin) Fahy when he confirmed with his (officiating) partner between Reese's penalty free throws that the Liberty did indeed have a reset (timeout) remaining," she said, per The Athletic's Annie Costabile.

DeMarco and his staff wouldn't have been able to draw up a final play if the Liberty had used their reset timeout. Under that rule, teams are allowed to advance the ball and make substitutions, but they can't huddle along the bench.

At the very least, New York wouldn't have had to waste valuable time getting the ball across half-court.

Costabile reported the Liberty lodged a formal inquiry with the league. Even if that works out in the team's favor, it will only bring so much satisfaction when the result is final.

New York trails 0-2 with the series heading to Barclays Center for Game 3 on Friday.