Former Duke guard Liston earns first WNBA championship with Minnesota

Chris Baird - TSN via Baird Photography
Minnesota Lynx, WNBA.com
Minnesota Lynx, WNBA.com

DURHAM, N.C. – In only her second pro season, former Duke Blue Devils standout guard Tricia Liston is a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) champion.

A 2014 Duke graduate, Liston celebrated with the Minnesota Lynx who claimed the 2015 WNBA title with a 69-52 win over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday.

It was the franchise’s third championship in the last five years.

Minnesota’s first round pick (12th overall) in the 2014 WNBA Entry Draft, Liston joined former Duke stars Mistie Bass and Karima Christmas as Blue Devils who have won a WNBA Championship in recent years – 2014 and 2014 respectively.

Duke alumnae have been part of teams that have claimed WNBA titles in in three out of the last four seasons.

Liston earned two starts on the season and in 31 games played averaged 3.4 points per game and ranked second in the WNBA with a 42.9 three-point field goal percentage.

Her trademark perimeter shooting in college has translated well onto the pro floor as she hit 27-of-63 beyond the arc on the season, and has dropped 41 three-pointers in two years with the Lynx.

Liston was a 2014 Associated Press Third Team All-America as a senior at Duke and finished with a school-record 87 three-pointers in her final year with the Blue Devils.

She finished her career at Duke with a school-record 252 three-pointers made, while scoring a total of 1,664 points to rank eighth all time.