Sports: Sun’s season comes to an end with playoff loss
Phoenix rises, uses late charge to knock Connecticut from the playoffs for the second straight year
Mohegan — The Connecticut Sun were 3 minutes, 36 seconds from Seattle on Thursday night.
Courtney Williams had them rocking at Mohegan Sun Arena. She had just scored her 11th straight point to give Connecticut a three-point lead over the Phoenix Mercury with 3:35 left in a WNBA second-round playoff game. It wasn't enough. Nothing the Sun did was enough to put the Mercury away.
Phoenix, an old hand at winning WNBA titles, put Connecticut away in the final minutes 96-86 before 7,858.
It is the second year in a row that the Mercury (22-14) beat the Sun in a second-round game at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Mercury advanced to play the top-seeded Seattle Storm in the best-of-five semifinals.
Williams scored 11 straight points to give Connecticut an 84-81 lead with 3:36 left in the game.
Stephanie Talbot tied it with a 3-pointer after a Phoenix timeout to start a 15-2 run.
DeWanna Bonner's layup put the Mercury ahead to stay 88-86 with 2:10 left.
Phoenix's Brittney Griner, after blocking Williams' layup attempt on the other end, made two free throws. Bonner's driving layup pushed the Mercury ahead 92-86 with 1:11 remaining in the game. Ball game. Bonner had 23 points and 18 rebounds for the Mercury and Diana Taurasi made five 3-pointers for 27 points with five assists.
Griner added 27 points and five rebounds.
Williams had 27 points and eight rebounds for the Sun (21-14) and Jasmine Thomas had 14 points and five rebounds.
Alyssa Thomas scored 17 for Connecticut and Jonquel Jones, who was named the Sixth Woman of the Year by the WNBA earlier in the day, had 13 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Connecticut got a little momentum going late after Griner's layup gave Phoenix a 78-75 lead with 5:52 remaining in the game.
Williams tied it seconds later with a 3-pointer.
January made a 3-pointer to give the Mercury back the lead.
Jones, trapped underneath, kicked out to Williams who had just enough time to put up a 3-pointer. She hit it, was fouled and made her free throw to push the Sun ahead 82-81 with 4:19 remaining.
Williams pulled up for another jumper to push Connecticut's lead to 84-81 with 3:55 left, her 11th straight point, to prompt Phoenix to call timeout.
And then Phoenix rocked the Sun with a 15-2 run to close the game.
The Mercury went 2-1 against Connecticut during the regular season. They also rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat the Sun in the second round at Mohegan Sun Arena last season, 88-83.
The third-seeded Washington Mystics (23-12) will play the No. 2 Atlanta Dream (23-11) in the other semifinal series. Atlanta beat the Mystics in two of three meetings.
The Mystics smashed the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Sparks 9664 in Thursday's other second-round game. The Sparks had played in the previous two WNBA Finals, won in 2016, and were favored by league GMs to win the title this year in their annual preseason poll.
• Jones received 20 votes from a national panel of 38 sportswriters and broadcasters to earn WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year honors.
Jones, a 6-foot-6 post, was the 2017 WNBA Most Improved Player last season and becomes the first player to win both the Sixth Woman and Most Improved awards. She was also an All-WNBA second team pick last year in just her second season.
Jones averaged 11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.24 blocks this season. She also had the league's second-best 3-point shooting percentage (46.7).
“I'm extremely excited for JJ being recognized for her outstanding year in the role that she had for us this season,” Sun coach Curt Miller said. “She was a huge spark coming off the bench and continues to show that she has a chance to be one of the elite players in this league for a long time.”
Players had to have come off the bench in more games than they started to be eligible for the award. Jones came off the bench in 18 of her 34 games.
Chicago Sky forward Cheyenne Parker finished second (eight votes) and Atlanta Dream guard Brittney Sykes was third (three votes).
Jones won the same award earlier this week from the Associated Press. n.griffen@theday.com