DiJonai Carrington scored 19 points Tuesday night in the WNBA’s first game in Boston as the Connecticut Sun used a late 14-0 run to rally past the Los Angeles Sparks 69-61.
Brionna Jones added 15 for Connecticut (20-7), which overcame a poor shooting performance to stay within 3 1/2 games of the league-leading New York Liberty. Tyasha Harris chipped in 14 points, while Alyssa Thomas stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, 16 rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
Azura Stevens and Rickea Jackson each scored 14 points for Los Angeles (6-22), which started the fourth quarter with a 13-2 run and led 59-55 with 4:15 left after a three-point play by Dearica Hamby.
Hamby’s points were the last for the Sparks until Jackson made two meaningless foul shots with 12.4 seconds remaining to set the final score. Thomas put the Sun ahead to stay with a three-point play at the 3:21 mark, and that was followed by a layup from Carrington and a pullup jumper from Marina Mabrey.
Connecticut won despite canning only 38.4 percent of its field-goal attempts and getting beat 42-36 on the boards. Los Angeles committed 22 turnovers that led to 20 points for the Sun.
With a sellout crowd of 19,125 watching, Los Angeles scored the game’s first five points before Connecticut went on a 15-4 run, going up by six on a layup from Carrington midway through the first quarter. The Sparks ended the period with an 11-2 burst for a 20-17 edge on Li Yueru’s layup as time expired.
The Sun tightened up on defense in the second quarter and also found some rhythm on offense, Jones contributing a couple of layups and feeding Carrington for another layup. After Harris drilled a 3-pointer just before the horn, Connecticut led 41-35 at the break.
Neither team did much on offense in the third quarter, combining for only 23 points. Turnovers hurt the Sparks and poor shooting kept the Sun from pulling away. DeWanna Bonner’s two foul shots with 52.7 seconds left made it 53-46 Connecticut going to the fourth period.
–Field Level Media
