Steady Tan White scored 10 points in the Sun's 88-78 win over Washington.
Tina Charles just missed a double-double for the Sun, who improved to 13-10 with the win, moving within a half game of the Mystics for third place in the WNBA Eastern Conference race. Charles, UConn’s all-time scoring and rebounding leader, had 15 points and nine rebounds for the evening. Renee Montgomery added 17 points—aided by a 3-for-4 showing from beyond the three-point arc—while Kara Lawson scored 11 points and Tan White chipped in with 10.
Washington’s All-Star frontcourt of Crystal Langhorne and Monique Currie scored 23 and 18 respectively, while Marisa Coleman added 12 points for the Mystics, who dropped to 13-9.
Over the past month, the Sun have been falling behind early before staging frantic comebacks—a pattern that has gotten the team into trouble as of late, as witnessed by their two straight home losses to New York and Los Angeles. On Tuesday night, however, that pattern was reversed with Connecticut jumping out to the lead, then staving off a comeback by the Mystics.
After leading by three, 19-16, at the end of the first period—the first time the Sun had lead after one in their last eight games—Coleman drained a trey to open the second stanza and knot the game at 19 apiece. But the Sun took charge at that point, going on an 11-point run over the next two minutes, highlighted by three-pointers by Montgomery sandwiched around five points from Jones to give the Sun a 30-19 lead with 6:47 remaining in the half. The Sun tacked on one more point to their advantage, and took a 43-31 lead into the locker room at intermission.
The Sun continued to pour it on in the third period, taking a 55-39 lead after Sandrine Gruda knocked down two free throws with 5:08 left in the quarter. But the Mystics did not fold up their tent—rather staging a frantic comeback of their own, cutting the Connecticut lead to two points, 71-69, after former Ohio State All-American Katie Smith drained a trey with 6:13 remaining in the game.
But that was as close as the Mystics would get. Jones, who scored 10 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, responded with four unanswered points to push the Sun Connecticut back to six, 75-69, with 5:23 to play, and the Sun never looked back.
Jones, who was the Mystic’s first round pick (No. 4 overall) in the 2002 draft after helping lead UConn to national titles in 2000 and 2002, couldn’t have picked a better time to get her “A game” kicked in. In a division with all six teams are separated by five games headed into the last month of the season, and with Atlanta, New York, and home-and-home matchups with Washington and 21-2 Seattle in the immediate future, the veteran leadership offered by the veteran forward is much needed by this young, talented team.
“I get a feeling those are the kinds of games that are going to happen for the next three or four weeks, every night,” said Sun head coach Mike Thibault after the game. “It's that close in our conference.
“You don't know how young players are going to respond,” continued Thibault, whose team improved to 9-3 at home, but is just 4-6 over the last 10 games. “I'm pretty sure I knew how Asjha [Jones] and Kara [Lawson] would respond. They're veterans. But for a lot of them, this is their first real playoff run.”
The Sun now find themselves just a half game behind the Mystics for third place, and three games behind the defending Eastern Division champion Indiana Fever, winners of their last five straight and eight of their last 10 games.
There will be no rest for the weary, however, as the second-place Atlanta Dream (16-9) invade the Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday night. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. The Sun then head down I-95 South to take on the New York Liberty, winners of five of their last seven games, at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Both games will be televised on WNBA Live Access, while Sunday’s game will also be shown on MSG Network.
