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| The Sun overcame a poor third period and outlasted the WNBA defending champion Seattle Storm, 81-67, on Sunday. |
UNCASVILLE—The Connecticut
Sun usually dominate the third quarter. That’s definitely not what happened on
Sunday. After being outscored in the third period by a 21-12 margin and leading
by just two points headed into the fourth, the Sun finally kicked it in and
outscored the Seattle Storm 25-13 en route to an 81-67 victory before 7,7,73
fans at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Father’s Day.
Alyssa Thomas led the Sun with 20 points, while Shekinna Stricklen
added a season-high 16 and Jonquel Jones contributed 13 points for the home
team. J.J. also hauled down 14 boards for the Sun, who improved to a
league-leading 8-1. Rookie Kristine Anigwe had a career-high of six points,
three rebounds and a steal against the Storm
Natasha Howard led Seattle with 20 points followed by Jewell Loyd
with 15 and Shavonte Zellous with 14. The Storm fell to 5-4. It was the fifth
time this season Howard has hit the 20-point bar.
This game had been anxiously anticipated by the Connecticut
basketball world since the schedule first game out since it represented the
return to the Nutmeg State for two of it’s all-time favorite players—former UConn
legends Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart. Both, however, missed the game because of
injuries sustained earlier in the season, although Bird did travel with the
team and sat on the Storm bench, lending her support to her teammates
throughout the contest. And Seattle was also without the services of starting
point guard Jordin Canada, who suffered a bone bruise on her knee on Friday
against Washington.
The Sun led 28-17 at the first turn, and took an 11-point lead,
44-33, into the locker room at intermission. And then the unthinkable happened.
The Sun—the team with the best record in the league—got hammered in the third
quarter by a team that may be the defending WNBA champs and were 5-3 coming
into the contest but were playing without three of its top players.
The Sun came into the game outscoring opponents 165-124 in the
third quarter—and 94-65 at the Mohegan Sun Arena. But that trend didn’t hold up
on Sunday as the Seattle came storming out of the locker room with 12 unanswered
points to open the period, and then proceeded to outscore the home team 21-12
in the third stanza.
“It was us,” said Sun power forward Alyssa Thomas
about her team’s poor performance after intermission. “We came out flat (in the
third), we weren’t playing the way we played in the first half, so once
we settled down and started playing defense, we were able to pull it out.”
In the end, however, it didn’t make much of a difference. Even
though Connecticut led by just two, 56-54, at the third pole, the Sun rebounded
big time to win the fourth quarter by a 25-13 margin and ultimately win comfortably.
“We are excited to finish off that tough stretch with
a win tonight, our fifth game in 11 days, never in the same location twice,”
said Sun head coach and general manager Curt Miller. “We really grinded through
that first nine games. That was our most compete win tonight in terms of some
stretches where our starters were fantastic, and then some stretches where our
bench carried us. We’ve had different things happen in our wins this season
where the bench may struggle but the starters were good, but that was our most
complete game in player personnel.”
The Sun stay put at the Mohegan Sun Arena and will
host the Atlanta Dream on Friday.
—with staff reports
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