By Bob
Phillips
 |
| Diana Taurasi (3) and Alex Bentley watch as two of Taurasi's game-high 33 points drop in but it wasn't enough as Connecticut pulled out a 93-92 victory over Phoenix. (Photo by Bob Phillips) |
UNCASVILLE
– Jonquel Jones is coming into her own. That might be the
understatement of the decade—if not the millennium. Jones, the 6-6 second year
center from the Bahamas who has earned the nicknamed “Double D,” turned in her fourth
straight double-double—and her 14th of the season—with a 19-point, 15-rebound
performance to lead the Connecticut Sun to a thrilling 93-92 victory over the
Phoenix Mercury before 7,331 fans at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday night. Alyssa
Thomas added 18 points and seven rebounds for Connecticut, which improved to
15-9—first in the WNBA Eastern
Conference and third place overall in the league.
It sure didn’t look to be a nail-biter at the outset. The Sun
raced out to a nine-point lead at the first turn thanks in large part to Jasmine
Thomas, who scored 13 of her 15 points in the first quarter. The reason for her
precipitous drop-off is that the All-Star point guard left the game with 3:17 remaining
in the second period when she injured her left ankle and was forced to sit out
the rest of the game.
Alex Bentley
picked up much of the slack with a 16-point effort—her best scoring performance
of the season. Fourteen of Bentley’s points game in the second half, and her layup
with just 18.2 seconds left gave the Sun a 91-89 lead—one they would not
relinquish.
Overall, the Sun had six
players in double figures—Alyssa and Jasmine Thomas, Jones, Alex Bentley
(16 points), Shekinna Stricklen (11 points), and Courtney Williams (10). Connecticut,
which led 53-41 at intermission, turned in the team’s best first-half
performance of the season.
Jones had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the first half.
It was a homecoming of sorts for the Mercury’s Diana Taurasi—one
of the most popular players in UConn women’s basketball history and always a crowd
favorite when she returns to the Nutmeg State. Taurasi led all scorers with 33
points—including four from downtown Norwich—and finished a scorching 12-for18
from the field. It was the third time in the past five games that Dee had
scored 30 or more points. Former New York Liberty point guard Leilani Mitchell
chipped in with 17 points for Phoenix, including a trey with three seconds left
to cut the Connecticut lead to one point. It was the diminutive Mitchell’s
fifth three-pointer of the contest.
But that was as close as the Mercury would get as Cayla George’s
desperation shot at the buzzer fell short and the Sun faithful could finally
exhale as Connecticut walked off with a one-point win.
For Taurasi, her 33 points were the most she had scored in
Connecticut since her glory days as one of the Huskies’ all-time superstars.
“It’s always great to come back here and play,” said
the Husky legend. “They [Connecticut] have had really good fans here for a
while now. I can remember back to when KT [Katie Douglas] and Nykesha [Sales]
were here, and this place was rocking so they have a great atmosphere. They have a young and talented team this year, so it was fun out there.”
“There are not very many people like Diana in the league,”
said Sun head coach and GM Curt Miller. “We tried different things. I thought
Alex [Bentley] did as good a job as she could on most plays. All you can hope
is that you make her take tough shots. I even talked a little to [Taurasi] to
try and remind her that she was old and getting tired and she just laughed at
me. She’s just a fantastic player and it’s a pleasure to coach against her, but
sometimes when you play through such a great player, someone has to step up and
make the play. That was our message—that maybe someone else will miss since
Diana was making all of the big ones.”
And that doesn’t even take into account that the Mercury
were playing without the services of their 7-foot superstar Brittney Griner—the
WNBA’s leading scorer who has been out of action since injuring her knee
against the Minnesota Lynx two weeks ago.
With the win, the
Sun improve to 3-0 since the All-Star Game, and next will face Sue Bird,
Breanna Stewart and the Seattle Storm on Tuesday at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m., and the game will be streamed on Twitter.
—with staff reports
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