The Connecticut Sun suffered their first road loss of the 2024 season to the reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces 85-74 on Friday at Michelob Ultra Arena, ending the best start in franchise history.
The Sun (13-2) have now lost just two games this year, and both were against teams that have eliminated them from the playoffs in the last two seasons. The Aces (8-6) beat Connecticut in the 2022 WNBA Finals, and the New York Liberty, who won 82-75 at Mohegan Sun Arena on June 8, knocked them out in the semifinals in 2023.
Brionna Jones powered an explosive start for the Sun, scoring the team’s first eight points including six on three straight assists from superstar forward Alyssa Thomas. Jones dominated the entire first quarter, logging 11 points in less than nine minutes to account for more than half of Connecticut’s scoring. Tyasha Harris was the only other Sun player with points in the first, adding five on 2-for-2 shooting from the field.
But after Jones subbed out with just over a minute to play in the first, Vegas went on a 6-0 run to lead the Sun 20-16 despite trailing nearly the entire quarter. Alysha Clark checked in off the bench for the Aces late in the first quarter and immediately had a hot hand, sinking her first 3-pointer to cut Connecticut’s lead to a single point. She scored five more points in the first minute of the second, though the Sun managed to draw a third personal foul against Clark that sent her to the bench for most of the quarter.
“I think our movement of the basketball changed a little bit, but credit to them for making things difficult,” Jones said. “I think there’s still some things we’re trying to clean up, and I think from this game we’re going to learn a lot when we get to watch the film and get back to it.”
Thomas was the only Sun player to record a field goal through the first eight minutes of the second quarter, and the Aces began to find an offensive rhythm that broke down Connecticut’s league-leading defense. Kelsey Plum hit a single 3-pointer in the first quarter but had 11 points at halftime shooting 3-for-4 beyond the arc, and reigning Defensive Player of the Year A’ja Wilson put up 12 points plus eight rebounds.
Jones was scoreless in the second after her spectacular start, and Vegas went on a 15-3 run during a nearly six-minute field goal drought until DiJonai Carrington sank a 3-pointer with under two minutes left in the half. The Aces led 45-28 at halftime, outscoring the Sun by 13 points in the second quarter.
“I think we were a little soft, and I mean soft like reactive on the defensive end,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “We weren’t disrupting anything or disrupting timing. We were allowing them past to pass the ball where they wanted. We were off a step on our switches instead of up at the point on the screens. And then when we got in (isolations), we weren’t we weren’t in our good off-ball positioning … They’re back-to-back WNBA champions for a reason. They make you pay for the little mistakes, and they certainly made us pay for those particularly in that run in the second quarter.”
First bucket of the 2nd half goes to @DijonaiVictoria pic.twitter.com/AMBIA5cZfX
— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) June 22, 2024
After a difficult shooting performance early, Carrington got hot in the third quarter scoring a quick five points out of halftime. She became the second Sun player in double-digits early in the second half, draining two more 3-pointers to power a 14-4 run that cut Vegas’s lead to single digits. It was her first game of the season with multiple threes and just her fifth with at least one make. Carrington finished with a team-high 19 points plus six rebounds and two steals.
“I think I was just overthinking in the first half and trying to play too fast, not trusting myself and my work,” Carrington said. “The second half, I just told myself to just play my game like I have been all season. I just slowed down and let it come to me.”
Shooting struggles ultimately doomed the Sun, who gave up six unanswered points to end the third that allowed Vegas to open up another 13-point margin that they maintained through most of the fourth. Leading scorer DeWanna Bonner was 2-for-10 from the field and Thomas was 2-for-6, while the team went 16-for-25 at the free throw line. Vegas had a worse performance beyond the arc hitting 6-of-24, but they shot 47.7% from the field and 17-for-23 at the free throw line. Connecticut was also out-rebounded 42-29 led by a season-best 16 from Wilson. The Aces superstar also finished with 26 points plus two steals and two blocks.
“(Wilson) is one of the best, if not the best player in the world, and she’s taken her game to another level this year,” White said. “It’s a load to cover A’ja one-on-one, and for us right now with where we are from a 3-point shooting standpoint, we can’t trade threes for twos so we weren’t really in a position to send double. We wanted to make her continue to hit tough twos, and she did hit some tough shots. She was a beast on the glass. She got herself to the foul line. You’re not going to stop great players. You just want to make it as difficult as possible for them, and she stepped up.”
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