Sun garner three season awards
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Jonquel Jones led a sweep of three major WNBA awards for Connecticut, earning MVP honors hours before the Sun opened their best-of-five playoff series against Chicago on Tuesday.
She averaged 19.4 points, 11.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots to earn her first MVP award. Jones received all but one of the 49 first-place votes from a national media panel. Phoenix center Brittney Griner garnered the other first-place ballot and finished a distant second. Breanna Stewart of Seattle was third, followed by Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles and Washington’s Tina Charles.
“When I found out I was really emotional, tearyeyed,” Jones said. “To get to share the awards and accolades with coach and teammates, it’s good to have that happen.”
Jones has already won two of the other major WNBA awards, earning the Most Improved Player in 2017 and the Sixth Woman of the Year in 2018.
“Her name will be forever mentioned with some of the greats all-time,” said Connecticut’s Curt Miller, who was chosen as the league’s Coach of the Year.
It’s the second time he’s won the award, also receiving it in 2017.
Miller, who became the sixth coach to win the award at least twice, had 41 of the 49 votes, with Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve second with six votes. Bill Laimbeer of Las Vegas and Noelle Quinn of Seattle each received one vote to finish in a tie for third.
A big part of the Sun’s success was due to the league’s Most Improved Player — Brionna Jones. She received 38 of the 49 votes. She averaged career highs of 14.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the Sun this season.
Sky take Game 1 in two overtimes
Courtney Vandersloot had the second tripledouble in WNBA playoff history with 12 points, a league playoff-record 18 assists and 10 rebounds to help the visiting Chicago Sky beat the Connecticut Sun 101-95 in two overtimes Tuesday night in the opener of their best-of-five semifinal series.
Jonquel Jones led the Sun with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Brionna Jones added 22 points.
Plum leads Aces past Mercury
Kelsey Plum scored 20 of her 25 points in the second half, and the host Las Vegas Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury 96-90 in Game 1 of the other WNBA semifinal.
Plum, the fourth-year guard who won an Olympic gold medal in 3-on-3 basketball, had 12 points in the third quarter for Las Vegas.
Brittney Griner had 24 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Phoenix.