Sun sweep Fever with 87-81 win in WNBA Playoffs to advance to sixth straight semifinals

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The Connecticut Sun are headed back to the semifinals of the WNBA Playoffs for the sixth consecutive season after sweeping the Indiana Fever with a decisive 87-81 win in Game 2 of the first-round series Wednesday at Mohegan Sun Arena.

The Sun advance to face the winner of the first-round series between the No. 2 Minnesota Lynx and No. 7 Phoenix Mercury for Game 1 of the semifinals on Sunday. They will play in Minneapolis if the Lynx are the opponent but would host the lower-seeded Mercury. The Sun have reached the WNBA Finals twice over the last five seasons, but the franchise is still seeking its first championship.

The Fever put Connecticut on its heels early as rookie phenom Caitlin Clark opened the game by pulling up for a wide-open 3-pointer, and the Sun started an abysmal 1 for 11 from the field and 0 for 3 on 3-pointers. Indiana opened up their first-quarter lead to as many as nine points in the first quarter behind three made outside shots in the first six minutes of the game, half as many as they made in all of Game 1.

There was a tense energy in the air at Mohegan Sun Arena, and the game got chippy quickly. Sun veteran DeWanna Bonner and Clark got into a spat less than two minutes into the game, and Clark had an exchange with a fan courtside during the opening quarter before calling security over to address him.

The Sun played much of the first half without All-Star center Brionna Jones, who took a hit in the first quarter that that left her right shoulder in visible pain. She briefly went to the locker room before returning to the bench with an ice pack on her shoulder, and she checked back in with just over two minutes left in the second quarter.

Former UConn standout Olivia Nelson-Ododa checked in after Jones’s injury and had one of her most impactful performance of the season. The third-year center logged four points, three rebounds and two blocks in her first 11 minutes on the floor and she had the highest plus-minus rating on the team at plus-11 before halftime.

Connecticut’s shooting didn’t improve dramatically after the sluggish second quarter: The team shot 36.6% from the field and 2 for 11 from beyond the arc, but they separated themselves at the free throw line going 9 for 10 in the first half. Marina Mabrey, who made her first postseason start with the Sun in place of injured point guard Tyasha Harris (right ankle), and she got hot in the second quarter to enter halftime with nine points after she logged two in the first. The teams traded buckets over the final minutes and entered the second half with Connecticut up 41-34.

Indiana hit the ground running out of halftime, tying the game at 41-41 and forcing the Sun to take a timeout less than two minutes into the third quarter. But Connecticut never allowed the Fever back in front by more than a single point, eventually opening up a nine-point lead behind an 8-2 run in the last three minutes of the quarter. Thomas scored six of those eight points and had secured her double-double stat line before the fourth quarter began.

The Sun defense locked down early in the fourth, but Indiana forward Temi Fagbenle hit a clutch 3-pointer with less than five minutes to play that made it a single-score game for the first time since the start of the third quarter. Clark then hit one of her signature off-balance 3-pointers to put Indiana in front 71-70 with three and a half minutes on the clock.

The Sun found their answer immediately in Mabrey, who pulled up and nailed her own 3-pointer seconds after Clarks’s. Fagbenle tied the game again at 73 points at the three-minute mark, but Bonner found a hot hand at the perfect moment. She answered a layup from Aliyah Boston with her own to tie the score 75-75, then hit her first 3-pointer of the game with under two minutes to play to give Connecticut a 78-77 lead. There were four lead changes and two tied scores in the fourth quarter alone.

The Fever turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions in the final 90 seconds, and Mabrey screamed with joy and chest-bumped Thomas as she nailed a 3-pointer off of the second to put the Sun up by two scores. Mabrey finished with 17 points and six assists, leading the team from beyond the arc going 3 for 10.

Nelson-Ododa secured a critical rebound with less than 40 seconds to play, and Carrington drew a foul against Clark and hit both free throws to open up the late lead. Bonner drew another foul against Clark on the next possession after a rebound by Thomas, and she too went 2 for 2 at the line to put the game out of reach. Clark finished with 25 points, nine assists and six rebounds and Boston added 16 points and 19 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Sun’s balanced effort.

Thomas came close to a second consecutive postseason triple-double, finishing with a team-high 19 points plus 13 assists and five rebounds. Bonner added 15 points and seven rebounds plus a team-high two steals, and point guard Veronica Burton added 10 plus three assists and three rebounds off the bench.