DeWanna Bonner scored 24 points as the Connecticut Sun beat the Minnesota Lynx 78-73 on Thursday night in Minneapolis.
The Sun (16-4) won their second straight game while tagging the Lynx (14-6) with their second loss in a row. Connecticut is second in the league and Minnesota is third.
Bonner shot 10 of 16 and also had nine rebounds. Meanwhile, Alyssa Thomas recorded a triple-double for the Sun, piling up 13 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds. DiJonai Carrington added 17 points.
Alanna Smith paced the Lynx with 14 points, Kayla McBride had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Bridget Carleton and Courtney Williams tallied 12 points apiece. Olympian and All-Star Napheesa Collier was held to a season-low nine points.
The Sun jumped out to a 20-9 lead in the first quarter behind Bonner’s hot start, as she scored 11 points in the first seven minutes of the game.
The Lynx then stormed back and took a four-point advantage into halftime, then began the third period on an 8-2 run to take a 10-point lead — a span highlighted by 3-pointers from Smith and Carleton.
Connecticut responded by ending the quarter on a 14-5 run behind nine points from Thomas. That lead only increased in the fourth quarter thanks to a 10-0 run that featured three assists from Thomas.
The spurt began after Diamond Miller sank a layup to cut the deficit to one point, but Minnesota went six minutes without making a field goal and had four turnovers.
A 3-pointer by McBride trimmed the Sun’s lead to just three points with 9.1 seconds to go, but Minnesota never got any closer.
Minnesota finished just 4 of 9 from the free-throw line; the Sun made 12 of 13.
For the Sun, Moriah Jefferson remained out with a right ankle injury, while Tyasha Harris was sidelined with an illness. Veronica Burton made her first start of the season for Connecticut and totaled nine points and four steals.
–Field Level Media
