Betnijah Laney-Hamilton has been working her way back for the last six weeks since she returned from having surgery on her right knee.

The Liberty guard looked like her pre-surgery self Sunday, scoring 20 points in the team’s 80-66 home win over the Lynx that evened the WNBA Finals series 1-1.

“I think everyone has seen her. She’s been struggling but she’s been feeling good these last few days, can tell you that much,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We just knew it was a bit of time. We’ve given her so much rest here and she was ready to go. She puts the work in. Like I said, she’s tough. We talked about the grittiness that she gives us.”

Laney-Hamilton, who had knee surgery on July 16 and returned to the lineup on Aug. 26, said she felt good after hitting her first drive of the game. The former Rutgers star said that she had “a little bit of everything” done to try and get her knee right.

“It gives me a little bit of momentum going through the series,” said Laney-Hamilton, who had five points in the opening loss. “I’ve been struggling physically and mentally as I’ve been going through everything. ... Finally starting to feel good and capitalize on it.”

Laney-Hamilton, who had her Hall of Fame college coach C. Vivian Stringer in attendance, brings so much to the Liberty on both ends of the court when she’s healthy.

“I think we missed her grittiness and just she’s the ultimate competitor. She takes pride — she used to always guard the best player and obviously now we have Leo, too, that makes us really a versatile defensive team. But you also miss her play-making,” Brondello said. “That’s something we talked about this year. We wanted to make sure she could play-make more and it was hard for her to play-make when she was hobbling around with the knee. We need her to get confidence first, and then to go out and play.”

When the Lynx got within 68-66 with 3:40 left in the fourth quarter, Laney-Hamilton started the game-closing 12-0 run with a 3-pointer in the corner that gave the Liberty a cushion they wouldn’t relinquish.

“She’s just impactful because she plays at both ends of the floor, and plays hard, and she’s a winner,” Brondello said.

Past and present: Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier have known each other for nearly a decade, going back to when Stewart hosted a high school-age Collier on a recruiting visit at UConn.

They won a college championship together in 2016, and Olympic golds in 2016 and this year. They’re business partners in the new Unrivaled women’s three-on-three league that will tip off this winter to help WNBA players make more money in the offseason.

They’ve played against each other many times since Collier began her pro career in 2019. But there’s never been a matchup quite like this one, their first in the WNBA Finals.

Collier won the first round, hitting the winning turnaround jumper in Game 1 and collecting 21 points, eight rebounds, six blocks and three steals. Stewart, meanwhile, had the game’s two biggest misses: a free throw to win at the end of regulation and a layup at the end of overtime.

Sunday’s Game 2 wasn’t full-blown revenge, but Stewart upheld her post- Game 1 pledge that “we’ll be ready.” She scored a game-high 21 points and tallied eight rebounds, five assists, one block and a whopping seven steals in the Liberty’s win.