Sun’s Jones having a breakout season

The question wasn’t directed Alex Bentley’s way, but that didn’t seem to matter to the former WNBA All-Star guard.

Bentley was sharing the phone line with teammate Jonquel Jones in a Monday afternoon conference call designed to promote the Connecticut Sun’s nationally-televised game against undefeated Minnesota. Inquiring minds wanted the 6-foot-6 Jones to explain how she has emerged into the WNBA’s leading rebounder, but first it was time for Bentley to declare that Jones was on the verge of becoming one of the league’s truly dominant players.

“She has the size, she has the talent, she has it all,” Bentley said. “She is doing great now, but you all haven’t seen nothing yet so watch.”

That chance comes Tuesday at 8 p.m. when Connecticut and Minnesota square off in a game televised by ESPN2. It is one of two Connecticut regular-season games being shown on the ESPN network.

Jones and Minnesota All-Star center Sylvia Fowles are the only WNBA players averaging a double-double. They also happen to rank first and second in the league in offensive rebounds per game. Jones leads the way at 6.5 followed by Fowles at 5.0.

“I am happy that they are trusting me to make plays,” Jones said. “I just want to be able to be there for my team. We have great scorers and the team doesn’t necessarily need me to score double digits every game but I can get on the boards and (play solid defense) so if I can get those things done, I put them in position to be successful.”

Jones began to display the potential that led to the Sun trading away a first-round pick in the 2017 draft as well as point guard of the future Chelsea Gray to select Jones in the 2016 WNBA Draft. While she had her moments in the early portion of the season, it wasn’t until the late June trade of disgruntled former WNBA AllStar center Kelsey Bone when Jones really made her presence felt.

Jones’ scoring average dou-

bled following Bone’s departure, while her rebounds and blocked shots per game also increased. So did the victory total as Connecticut won 11 of its final 18 games. The rest of the league was paying attention as a poll of WNBA general managers resulted in Jones receiving 25 percent of the votes for the player likely to have a breakout season.

“She uses her size to get shots off and she goes, gets those o-boards,” said Minnesota Lynx forward and former UConn star Maya Moore. “She is dangerous by the rim and she is really embracing that with how she is crashing the offensive glass. We have to be super mindful of her because she is being super intentional about getting those boards.”

With former All-Star forward Chiney Ogwumike out for the season due to a torn Achilles’ tendon and veteran forward Camille Little being traded in the offseason, Jones’ playing time has jumped significantly. She played at least 25 minutes just three times in 34 games as a rookie. She can match that feat on Tuesday as Jones is averaging 30 minutes in the first two games of the season.

“I watched Chiney, she was coming off an injury and I watched her get her confidence back, watched her dominate every game,” Jones said. “One thing I learned from Chiney is being able to finish on the block. Just finishing around the rim, approaching every day with an professional mindset and just being positive. She is a positive person, she always has great feedback.”

Connecticut and Minnesota will meet twice this week as a game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday night awaits. A season ago the struggling Sun team took the season series from a Minnesota squad which nearly won the team’s fourth WNBA title in the last six years.

“Coming in against one of the better teams in the league, not only holding our own but walk away with victories gave us a level of confidence that we can come in and play basketball with anybody as long as we are focused we can go out and play high caliber basketball,” Jones said.

The Lynx players remember those results and just how feisty of a team that Connecticut had a season ago.

“They are a relentless team,” said Minnesota guard and former UConn All-American Renee Montgomery. “Whether they are up 10, they are down 10 it doesn’t matter to Connecticut they are just going to play hard all the time. Those scrappy teams are hard to play against because you can’t give them a knockout blow and think they are going to stay down. Sometimes you get on a run and expect them to fold, they are always to keep fighting and be relentless on the boards.”

After beginning last season 1-7, Connecticut is currently 0-2 having dropped a pair of games when they held second-half leads so the Lynx could be seeing a team playing with a certain sense of desperation as well.

“We’ve been beating ourselves the last couple of games,” Bentley said. “Things we could have executed better we didn’t, the stops we could have gotten we didn’t so we all have all look in the mirror as a team and as individuals and be better so that we pull out these wins.”