Sun hold on to beat Sky
The Connecticut Sun were being outshot again on Friday night and clinging to a one-point lead against the Chicago Sky with seconds left. Once again, the Sun's grit pulled them through. And they closed it out with a most unexpected play.
DeWanna Bonner stole the ball from Courtney Vandersloot, Chicago's sure-handed point guard, and was fouled with 6.6 seconds remaining.
Bonner made two free throws to ice the game for Connecticut, 77-74, their third straight win and the best one of the season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
Connecticut is 4-6 after starting the season 0-5. It lost to Chicago last Saturday, 100-93.
"Something (DB) said at the end of the game was that a week ago, we wouldn't have won this game," Sun Jasmine Thomas said.
Alyssa Thomas came close to a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as well as a game-high four steals for the Sun. Bonner had 19 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
Brionna Jones added 15 points and nine rebounds for Connecticut and Jasmine Thomas had 15 points and four assists.
Connecticut won for the second straight game despite shooting under 40-percent (38.2-per
cent).
"We're proving that there's different ways to win down here," Sun head coach Curt Miller said. "We did not shoot the ball well from the field. Obviously, we had a real tough night at the foul line (14-of-24). We made it more difficult than it needed to be.
"We left some points out there, but our defense was big, and then against arguably the best or one of the best offensive teams in the league, to get some necessary stops right there at the end is big for us and again shows that this team has a chance to be really good defensively and that you can win ugly and you can win when you don't have the great offensive night."
Cheyenne Parker had 17 points and six rebounds for the Sky (6-4) and Vandersloot had 14 points and seven assists.
Chicago's Kahleh Copper scored nine of her 12 points in the fourth quarter and finished with six assists and Allie Quigley scored 16.
Connecticut led by as much as 5438 with 2:29 left in the third quarter.
Chicago stormed back in the fourth quarter and cut the Sun's lead 75-74 with seconds remaining.
The Sky had the ball when Bonner and Jones trapped Vandersloot near the basket.
Bonner poked the ball loose for the steal.
Vandersloot leads the league with 8.3 assists to just 2.4 turnovers a game. She was also an All-WNBA First Team pick last season and a two-tmie Second Team pick.
The Sun took what was then their largest lead over a minute into the second half when Jasmine Thomas threw a pass up over Chicago's defense to Alyssa Thomas for a layup and a 39-28 edge.
Bonner turned a coast-to-coast layup into a three-point play and made a 3-pointer in front of Connecticut's bench, followed by Alyssa Thomas' floating hook shot, to extend the Sun's lead to 54-38 with 2:33 remaining in the third quarter and forced Chicago head coach James Wade to call timeout.
The timeout helped as Vandersloot made a 3-pointer five seconds later and Parker had a putback to cut into the Sky's deficit to 55-43 with 1:34 left in the third.