Renee Montgomery's career-high six three-pointers went for naught as New York held on for an82-74 victory in OT.

Diminutive point guard Leilani Mitchell nearly doubled her season scoring average with 16 points and added eight rebounds, while former Sun star Taj McWilliams-Franklin chipped in with 11 points and Plenette Piersen added 10 for the Liberty.

Renee Montgomery led the Sun with 23 points—including a career-high six three-pointers—while Tina Charles added 14 and Sandrine Gruda 13 for Connecticut, which fell to 12-9 in losing just its second home game of the season.

After falling behind early—the Liberty led 19-12 at the end of the first quarter and 40-30 at halftime—the Sun finally started to fire on all cylinders. Particularly out of sync in the early going was Connecticut’s all-world rookie Tina Charles, the leading rebounder in the WNBA, who did not have a single carom in the first half. Charles, who has been playing as if “Double-Double” is her middle name, was also held to four points in the first half.

“Just make one rebound,” said Sun head coach Mike Thibault when asked what he told his star center at halftime. “The rest will come.”

Charles ended the game with a subpar six boards.

The Sun had particular difficulty holding onto the ball early in the contest, handing the ball over to New York 10 times in the game’s first 14 minutes, and ending the game with 20 turnovers.

After cutting the New York advantage to 51-45 at the end of the third period, Ajsha Jones (nine points, six rebounds), who is finally starting to get into a rhythm following Achilles tendon surgery in February, opened the scoring in the fourth stanza with a short jumper one minute in, cutting the Liberty lead to four points. New York promptly responded with a 7-1 run—five from Pondexter, the former Rutgers star who teamed with Diana Taurasi in Phoenix to win two WNBA titles with the Mercury—to build the cushion back to 10 points for the Liberty.

But the Sun refused to go down without a fight. Trailing by 12 points with 3:31 remaining in regulation, the Sun closed out the fourth period with a 19-7 run fueled by an avalanche of three-point field goals—three by Montgomery and one by Tan White. In addition to her three downtown bombs, Montgomery coolly knocked down a three-fer from the charity stripe after being fouled by former UConn star Kalana Greene while attempting another three-pointer.

After Pondexter put down two free throws giving New York a 72-69 lead with just over 13 seconds remaining, Montgomery drained the most dramatic shot of her two-year pro career—her sixth three-pointer of the game with 4.2 seconds left. The Liberty still had time for one play and went to Pondexter, but White got a piece of her shot at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime.

At which point the Sun ran out of gas, missing all seven shots they took in the overtime session, while watching Pondexter take over.

“The worst part is, we always dig ourselves a hole and then we have to make these massive comebacks,” said Montgomery, referring to the fact that the Sun have trailed their opponents after the first period for the past six games. “The same thing repeated in the overtime. We have to find a way to start out right and end it right so we don’t always have to make a spectacular comeback to get back in the game.”

With the win, the Liberty improve to 10-10, and are tied for last place in the WNBA Eastern Conference with the Chicago Sky. However, only three games separate first place from the basement in the most competitive division in professional sports in which all six teams are currently .500 or better. The fourth-place Sun fall to 12-9, and are 1.5 games out of first—and last

“There isn’t a team in the Eastern Conference that isn’t playing it one game at a time, because every game makes a difference in the standings,” said Liberty head coach Anne Donovan, whose team has won six of their last nine games. “We know we can play with anybody. There isn’t a game that we haven’t been in, and we’re starting to jell now.”

The Sun next will face Tina Thompson and the Los Angeles Sparks in the second of a four-game homestand on Saturday. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on Cox Sports New England.