NEW YORK — Saturday was the final meeting of the regular season between the Indiana Fever and the New York Liberty, but it came with all the pomp and circumstance of a playoff matchup: a raucous, 17,581-strong Barclays Center crowd filled to the rafters, a tight game with leads that never eclipsed 10 points and the kind of high-octane basketball one would expect from two teams with title hopes.For the Liberty, who are still working to clinch a postseason berth, Saturday’s 109-102 win was a necessary step as they push to overcome an inconsistent season marred by injury. The Fever, meanwhile, have already secured a spot, courtesy of a Portland Fire loss on Friday night, but the battle for seeding continues.“We know this team has been through a lot,” Breanna Stewart said. “But we have a lot of fight left in us. There were playoff implications for this game. … But we just want to continue to make it feel good and be firing on all cylinders defensively and have that impact our offense.”Indiana’s arrival in New York came with its typical sideshow. There were two rallies held outside Barclays Center pregame, one in support of the inclusion of transgender women in sports and the other in opposition. The small groups remained peaceful amid a heavier-than-usual police presence for a Liberty game.Inside, it was hard to tell it was a Liberty home game. Red Fever T-shirts and jerseys were sprinkled throughout the courtside seats, bleeding more heavily into the stands. The Fever starting lineup announcements were met by an even mix of boos and cheers. The same could be said when Indiana guard Sophie Cunningham, whose comments on transgender athletes sparked the rallies, entered the game.In their last meeting, the Fever ran the Liberty out of the gym, shooting 54 percent from the field and over 60 percent from 3. But Saturday night was a different story. While the Liberty controlled the game throughout, the Fever were a pesky mosquito refusing to go away.The 7-point lead the Liberty took into the final frame was cut to 1 with four minutes to play, as Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Cunningham spearheaded the fourth-quarter comeback.Just when it looked like Mitchell was going to pull out her sword and slay another dragon, New York got a much-needed answer from its missing piece — Leonie Fiebich.With her team clinging to a 1-point lead, Fiebich drew an and-1, giving the Liberty a 3-point advantage with under a minute to play. If there were any lingering question of who had home-court advantage, it was made crystal clear in the final 30 seconds, as Barclays erupted in celebration of the Liberty’s game-winning plays down the stretch.“We kept our composure,” Stewart said. “Chris (DeMarco) kind of challenged us — me, Sabrina (Ionescu), (Jonquel Jones) as the leaders of this team — to really bring us together and huddle whenever we can … I thought we were really just engaged with one another tonight.”Fiebich finished with 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field. Stewart led the Liberty with 22 points, and Jones added 19.Mitchell extended her 20-plus-point scoring streak to 22 games, finishing with a game-high 25 points in the Fever loss. Clark added 21 points, and Aliyah Boston had 22. It was the second straight loss for Indiana, which fell to the Dallas Wings on Thursday.