SUN TAKE COMMAND
Jones, Williams push Sun to 2-0 edge in series
Connecticut defeats LA 94-68 for 2-0 lead in best-of-five WNBA playoff series.
UNCASVILLE — Curt Miller’s Connecticut Sun may have taken Game 1 of their semifinal series against the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday, but when speaking with the media after the game, he didn’t mince words about the challenge his team faced ahead.
“[L.A.] came here to split,”
Miller said.
“Game 2 is going to be a war.”
For the better part of three quarters, Thursday’s game was a battle, one that
L.A. controlled entirely in the f i rst quarter.
“They came out and hit us hard in our mouth,”
Connecticut’s Courtney Williams said, after the Sparks built an 11-point lead early in the second period.
But the Sun’s utter dominance on the glass and the heroics of Jonquel Jones and Courtney Williams, who combined for 52 points, empowered Connecticut to overcome that deficit and leave Mohegan Sun Arena with a 94-68 victory and 2-0 advantage in the best-of-five semifinal series. The Sun outscored the Sparks 79-46 after the first quarter.
Connecticut now only needs one more victory to advance to its first WNBA Final since 2005. L.A. will fight for its life on
Sunday back home in Game 3.
Jones ended her night with a game-high 27 points and collected 13 rebounds, seven of which were on the offensive end. Williams had 25 points, six rebounds, and six assists, while Alyssa Thomas notched a doubledouble with 12 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and two steals. Nneka Ogwumike led the Sparks with 18 points and seven rebounds.
The Sparks shot nearly 60 percent in the first quarter compared to the Sun’s 32, but Connecticut caught up behind 17 second-quarter points from Jones and Williams, as well as five from Rachel Banham off the bench.
The Sun went into halftime up 41-40, in large part by outrebounding the Sparks. Connecticut had 29 first-half rebounds (compared to LA’s 14), giving them 13 second-chance points (versus L.A.’s two). Connecticut ended the night with a 46-24 rebounding edge. That number included 16 Sun offensive rebounds, eight in the second quarter alone, that turned into 28 secondchance points.
“We had so many second-chance opportunities that we had a lead when it didn’t feel like a great firsthalf offensively,” Miller said. “It was all because of rebounding, and that continued as we shored up some things and strung together some consecutive stops, and we got our running game going. It really carried us when we were struggling offensively in that first half.”
Jones ended the first half with six offensive rebounds and added one more in the second half, in addition to her six grabs on the defensive end.
“It’s the playoffs,” Jones said. “Every point matters, any opportunity you have to take the lead or even cut into a run, it matters.”
Though a layup from Chelsea Gray and two free throws from Tierra RuffinPratt regained a three-point lead early in the third for L.A., the Sun went on a 12-1 run before Sparks coach Derek Fisher finally called timeout. In the final three minutes, a floater from Alyssa Thomas, threepointer from Williams, pair of free throws from Bria Holmes, and two more baskets from Williams gave Connecticut a 13-point lead going into the final quarter.
“I thought finally the game settled in,” Miller said about his team’s turnaround. “We had a chance to relax and realized that we had to match that physicality, we had to match the aggressiveness that they came out with. When we started to do that, the game settled in.
“We got people in space, we got moving and we made some difficult shots. Wewere just able to talk our way through some of what they were hurting us with in the first half.”
The Sun held the Sparks scoreless from the field in the first 3:24 of the fourth quarter and two baskets from Jones, a three from Jasmine Thomas, and another from Holmes opened it up for good.
Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com