Sun defeat Sky to extend semifinal series
UNCASVILLE — Courtney Williams’ dad, Don, jumped up from his courtside seat and used his boom stick as a baseball bat to celebrate a three-point play from DeWanna Bonner.
Later, he bowed to Brionna Jones from his seat as she drained a jump shot.
During a timeout in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, he turned to face the nearly 6,000 in the crowd and led them through a chant with the boom sticks.
The fans at Mohegan Sun gave the Connecticut Sun a standing ovation at halftime, again at the third-quarter break, and again at the final buzzer as the Sun walked off the court with a 104-80 win over Chicago in Game 4 of the WNBA semifinal playoff series.
The Connecticut Sun saved its season for at least one more game.
Connecticut avoided elimination by pushing the series to a decisive Game 5 Thursday in Chicago (8 p.m., ESPN2) for the chance to advance to the finals. The Sun last played in the finals in 2019 (falling to Washington 2-3), while the Sky are looking to advance for the chance to become the first team to earn back-to-back titles in two decades (Los Angeles did so in 2002/01).
“All the credit to the players, how determined they were,” Sun coach and general manager Curt Miller said. “... We felt deflated after Game 3 that we did so well defensively and couldn’t get to the finish line. Just incredible heart and determination by our players to do what they’re capable of, that’s all them tonight. Just heart and effort and incredible focus throughout the entire game.”
After under-performing offensively in Games 2 and 3, the Sun played its best when it mattered most.
Bonner and Courtney Williams led the Sun with 19 points each. Alyssa Thomas followed with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Connecticut broke the WNBA record for most points in the paint in a playoff game, finishing with 66 total to the Sky’s 34.
All series-long the Sun failed to start games with as much momentum as Chicago. That changed Tuesday. Williams said the team talked about making a hot start a point of emphasis before the game and it showed.
The Sun started with three straight shots, including a 3-pointer from 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones. Connecticut led by 16 in the first quarter as Thomas led all players with 11 points — more than she finished with in the previous two games.
The crowd at Mohegan Sun got on its feet after DiJonai Carrington grabbed a last-second steal by intercepting a pass from Chicago star Candace Parker and running it in for a layup. Natisha Hiedeman grabbed Carrington by the waist and screamed into her chest while the rest of the Sun players ran over and joined in on the hug before halftime.
“Everybody’s just having fun,” Williams said. “Like sometimes when you get in the playoffs, you get so uptight, you just get outside of yourself because it’s a different type of urgency but we play our best basketball when we’re having fun. We’re jumping around, cheering each other one. I think that’s when we play our best basketball.”
Unlike the previous three games, where the Sun allowed Parker to go off, the twotime WNBA champion was held scoreless until the final minute of the second quarter. She finished with 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists on five turnovers.
Odyessy Sims hit the Sun’s dagger of the night in the final 0.2 seconds of the third quarter to give the Sun a 21-point lead after stealing an inbound pass from Parker to Allie Quigley immediately after Bonner made a 3-pointer at the 2.6-second mark.
“(We had) too many details that we missed that we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do,” Quigley said. “… We just had too many moments where we weren’t there and weren’t ready.”
Connecticut led by as much as 27 in the final quarter as the Sky lost all and any momentum. The Sun outscored the Sky in points in the paint (64-32) and second chance points (15-1), while outrebounding Chicago 34-23 and forcing 14 turnovers for 20 points.
The Sun will again put the season on the line Thursday night as they face off against Chicago for a winner takes all.
“It’s razor thin the difference between winning and losing and it can flip in a second,” Miller said. “... It’s gonna come down to who plays better for two hours on Thursday. We’ve won some tough road games, we feel like we have a team that grinds and has grit and feels that type of toughness we need to pull off a road win in a big game.”