Sun Stop Sparks, Lock Up Playoff Spot

With Chiney Ogwumike sitting it out, Jasmine Thomas (5)
stepped up with 27 points to lead the Sun over the LA Sparks,
clinching a first-round bye for Connecticut.

By Bob Phillips

UNCASVILLE—When the Connecticut Sun face the Los Angeles Sparks, it’s usually the WNBA version of the Hatfields vs. the McCoys. That’s because a Sun-Sparks contest usually features a battle between the Ogwumike sisters—Chiney for the Sun, Nneke for LA. Both were All-Americans from Stanford, and both were selected No. 1 overall in their respective drafts.

Usually being the operative word.

On Sunday, the Sun and Sparks wrapped up the regular season with much on the line from the Sun’s perspective, who were playing for a first-round bye in the playoffs. However, both Ogwumike sisters were sitting out the game, nursing nicks in preparation for the postseason. Indeed, for Chiney, it was the second straight game she sat out with a sore knee.

But excellence in team sports requires that others pick up the slack. And so it was that Jasmine Thomas stepped up to the plate and delivered a game-high 27 points—including a 4-of-5 performance from downtown and a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe—to lead the Sun over the Sparks, 89-86, before 8,040 fans at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday. Three of Thomas’s points game during absolute crunch time, as she calmly dropped three free throws in the last four seconds of the contest to provide the margin of difference for the Sun.

Jonquel Jones chipped in with a 17-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist performance for the Sun, who improved to 21-13 and nailed down that first-round bye with the victory. Courtney Williams popped in 13, while Shekinna Stricklen added 10 and former UConn star Morgan Tuck contributed 10 points to the Sun cause.

Jantel Lavender paced the Sparks, who have now lost two straight games, with 17 points, followed by Essence Carson with 14 points, Chelsea Gray with 12, and Odyssey Sims with 11 points.

The Sun raced out to an early eight-point lead and built a 19-point cushion in the third period. But the Sparks just would not go away. After Stricklen dropped one in to put the Sun up by 19 with less than five minutes remaining in the third period, the Sparks caught fire. A 17-4 LA run cut the Connecticut advantage to six points, 69-63, as the teams rounded the third pole.

However, after the Sparks scored first in the final stanza, Williams and Tuck combined for eight points to push the Connecticut lead a back to 10. 

The Sparks made what would prove to be their final run—cutting Connecticut’s advantage to just two, 86-84, when Candace Parker (20 points, 10 boards) banged one in from downtown Norwich with just 5.1 remaining in regulation. But then it was Jasmine Thomas’s turn to shine as the 5-9 Duke product performed as if ice ran through her veins, popping in three straight from the charity stripe to provide the Sun with the ultimate margin of victory.

And they did it without their franchise player.

“We were excited that AT [Alyssa Thomas] was healthy again, we were excited that our chemistry had a reboot and we got Courtney [Williams] back,” said Connecticut head coach and general manager Curt Miller, who has now led the Sun into the postseason for the second straight year. “We thought we had a chance to play good basketball again. As we built momentum, I think that locker room will tell you, they think that they can beat anyone, and you saw it [today].

“It wasn’t easy to scoreboard watch, because as we were 8-1 going into this game, we weren’t making up any ground [on Washington or Atlanta], so all we could do is control what we can control, and that was us. That locker room really focused in on us and what we do. We competed every night to see if we were good enough to come away with a W.” 

Connecticut led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, had an 18-point lead at one point in the second quarter, and were up by 19 twice in the third quarter.

 In each instance, the Sparks responded.

After Stricklen put the Sun up by 19 with just under five minutes remaining in the third period, the Sparks responded with a 17-4 to pull within 69-63 rounding the third pole. Then, with the Sun leading by four early in the fourth quarter, Williams and Tuck combined for eight points to push the Sun lead back to 10, 77-67.

That 10-point lead held until the end of the game when, with Connecticut leading by 87-82, LA made its last charge. Candace Parker, who finished with 20 points and 10 boards, hit a long trey with 5.1 seconds left in regulation, cutting the Sun lead to two, 86-84. And that set the stage for Jasmine Thomas’s heroics.

She stepped to the line and sank two free throws, but LA’s Riquna Williams was fouled on a three-point attempt on the next possession and made two of her three freebies. Then it was Thomas’s turn to return the favor. She hit her last free throw attempt to ice the game.

Now it’s off to the playoffs for Connecticut, who will entertain Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury, 101-83 winners over Dallas in their first-round play-in game, on Thursday night. Should the Sun get past Phoenix, they will advance to a best-of-five semi-final series vs. Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and the top-seeded Seattle Storm beginning Sunday.

Sun Spots

• Connecticut had five players in double digits vs. LA: Jasmine Thomas (27), Jonquel Jones (17), Courtney Williams (13), Shekinna Stricken (10) and Morgan Tuck (10). The last time five players scored double digits was on Aug. 14 vs. Dallas.
• With 22 assists, it was the 18^th time this season the Sun had registered 20 or more assists in a game... and the third straight game the Sun have hit the 20 assist bar.
• Jasmine Thomas scored 20 or more points for the fourth time this season, finishing with a team high of 27 points. In her last seven games, Thomas is averaging 16.6 points.
• In her second straight start, Jonquel Jones finished with 17 points. The center was 7-for-11 from the floor, including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. She also recorded a career high of seven assists, her previous was six at Washington on August 29, 2017.
• Morgan Tuck came off the bench to record 10 points for her eighth game this season with 10 or more points.
• Shekinna Stricklen’s 10 points represented her 10^th game in double-figures.
• In the first half, the Sun recorded a season high of eight made three-pointers and shot 80 percent from beyond the arc.
• It was also the sixth time this year that Connecticut was perfect from the free-throw line.

For the 2018 regular season, Connecticut set seven records:

• 258 three-point field goals (prior record 223 in 2017).
• 703 three-point field goal attempts (prior record 669 in 2008).
• 666 assists (prior record 230 in 2006).
• 36.7% three-point percentage (prior record 36.5%, set in 2017).
• 2,979 points (prior record 2,924 points in 2017).
• 1,144 made field goals (prior record 1,098 in 2017).
• 87.6 scoring average (prior record 86.0 set in 2017).

—with Colleen White and staff reports