The Connecticut Sun got a necessary confidence boost after back-to-back home losses, beginning their four-game West Coast road trip with a 79-67 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
The Sun were anchored by superstar Alyssa Thomas, who recorded her third triple-double of the 2024 season with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. It was the 11th triple-double of her career, and she is one of just two players to record the stat line multiple times this year alongside Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark. Thomas was also an impact player on the defensive end with two steals and a block, finishing with the highest plus-minus on the team at plus-22.
“Honestly I didn’t know, and I didn’t care,” Thomas said of the triple-double. “It was more about the win. We didn’t play our best basketball today, and it took all the way until the fourth quarter for us to kind of get control of it.”
Though the Sparks were just eliminated from playoff contention last week, the last-place team in the WNBA came out with something to prove against the No. 3 Sun. The teams went back and forth early, trading layups until former UConn center Azura Stevens hit the first 3-pointer of the game for Los Angeles less than three minutes into the game. The Sparks started 3-for-4 from beyond the arc with another make from a post player as 6-foot-7 rookie Li Yueru knocked one down to make it a one-point game after the first, but six first-quarter points from All-Star center Brionna Jones and five from sharpshooter Marina Mabrey powered Connecticut to a 19-18 lead.
L.A.’s hot shooting start continued into the second quarter, and Connecticut’s league-leading defense struggled to contain rookie superstar Rickea Jackson. Jackson single-handedly scored seven points in the first three minutes of the quarter to power a 9-3 run that gave the Sparks what was then their biggest lead of the game. But Connecticut’s own superstar found a response on both ends of the floor: Thomas answered the Los Angeles run by scoring six of her 10 first-half points in the second quarter.
The Sun’s frontcourt managed to contain Sparks star Dearica Hamby to just 1-for-4 from the field, but Hamby went 6-for-6 at the free throw line in the second quarter to help push L.A. to a 45-39 halftime lead. Another former UConn standout, Kia Nurse, came off the bench and drained a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from more than 30 feet to send the Sparks into the break ahead two scores.
“We knew when we went to the locker room at halftime that we were playing too lax, too off,” Sun guard DiJonai Carrington said. “We weren’t being aggressive or making them feel us. They were cutting in our face. They were kind of getting whatever they wanted at the rim and we were fouling, so it was honestly just us talking to each other and telling each other to pick it up. Sometimes we don’t even need the coaches to get on us, we can get on each other.”
Connecticut trailed for the entire third quarter, but both teams began to grapple with foul trouble in the second half. Stevens picked up her fourth foul for L.A. in the opening minutes of the quarter, and Jones had to spend extended time on the bench in the fourth after she drew a fifth with nearly five minutes left to play. The Sun had an abysmal shooting night at the free throw line going just 9-for-16, while the Sparks got to the line 20 times for 16 points.
Despite entering the fourth quarter with just a three-point lead, the Sun controlled the momentum down the stretch. Veteran star DeWanna Bonner, who finished with 14 points shooting 4-for-9, went 4-for-4 at the charity stripe with all four coming on consecutive free throws to end the third. Jackson and Nurse combined for seven points in the first two minutes of the fourth to open up another two-score deficit for Connecticut, but Bonner and Mabrey hit back-to-back 3-pointers that gave the Sun a lead they held through the final buzzer.
“I think we just we locked in defensively (in the fourth). Our activity level was higher. We were getting out of passing lanes. We disrupted their timing on offense,” White said. “Our level of physicality was a little bit more, but we were also disciplined. We sent them to the line way too frequently in the first half, and it was just because we were either miscommunicating or out of position or not playing with multiple levels of effort or we were late. I felt like we did a much better job of that in the second half, and in particular in the fourth quarter.”
Carrington sank another critical 3-pointer, her first of the night, with just over two minutes on the clock to give the Sun a two-score lead, and Jones added a tough and-1 layup over Hamby on the next possession to open up the biggest lead of the game for Connecticut. Carrington’s three kicked off a 10-0 run for the Sun that the Sparks ran out of time to answer. Jackson, despite finishing with a game-high 23 points, was scoreless in the fourth.
Four of five Sun starters plus Mabrey finished scoring in double-digits led by 21 points from Jones, who had a near double-double with nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Jones has been on an offensive tear with four straight games scoring at least 15 points including three 20-plus point performances. Carrington, a San Diego native, was also productive in her home state with 19 points shooting 9-for-14 with a team-high five steals.
“I think (Jones) found her legs again. I thought she looked a little fatigued there for a few games,” White said. “I think she’s gotten her bounce back a little bit. I think we’re doing a better job of finding her in scoring position. We’re being a little bit more intentional about getting her touches, where she’s getting her touches, how she’s getting her touches, versus different kind of matchups, so I think it’s a combination of those things.”
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