Sabrina Ionescu and Zoe Brooks win WNBA Skills Challenge

Former Duck great Sabrina Ionescu won the WNBA Skills Challenge with high schooler Zoe Brooks.

Winning is in Sabrina Ionescu’s genes, no matter what type of competition she may be in.

In typical Sabrina fashion, with her teammate and high school star Zoe Brooks, she won the WNBA Skills Challenge at All-Star Weekend in Chicago.

“I had a great partner, which helped,” Ionescu told the press afterward. “I told myself I wasn’t gonna get too competitive, but I got really competitive. I’m happy we won.”

Each WNBA participant was paired with a high school player from the Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) participating in the 2022 Nike Nationals. All the teams had to go through an obstacle course that tested various skills including ball-handling, passing, and shooting. Being a master of the triple-double, this type of thing was right up Ionescu’s alley.

But it wasn’t as easy as one would think for the former Duck great. Ionescu faced a slight bit of adversity in the first round when Chicago Sky’s Azura Stevens inadvertently knocked the ball away from Ionescu after the layup portion of the course.

She bounced back, however, and made the 3-pointer first to advance to the semi-finals. Ionescu then managed to cruise through that round, easily knocking out Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum.

In the final round, she was matched up against the Indiana Fever’s NaLyssa Smith where the No. 2 overall pick of this year’s WNBA draft made a surprise run through the event, upsetting hometown favorite Courtney Vandersloot of the Sky in the first round and reigning MVP Jonquel Jones of the Connecticut Sun in the semis.

Ionescu put an end to Smith’s run, though.