Connecticut Sun escape late comeback from Dallas Wings 74-72 to remain lone undefeated WNBA team

UNCASVILLE — The Connecticut Sun kept their undefeated streak alive despite a last-minute scare from the Dallas Wings, escaping with a 74-72 victory at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday.

The Sun entered the fourth quarter with a nine-point lead, but Dallas found another gear to start the first four minutes on an 8-0 run that cut the deficit to a single point. Back-to-back fouls against superstar forward Alyssa Thomas made it a two-score game again, but the Wings responded again with a 3-pointer from Sevgi Uzun in the final minute that put them up 72-71.

Thomas put Connecticut back in front on a short jump shot with just under 40 seconds to play, and a 3-point attempt by Wings star Arike Ogunbowale rimmed out with 22 seconds remaining. Thomas grabbed the rebound and was fouled, but she missed both free throws to give Dallas one last opportunity. Tyasha Harris recovered the game-securing rebound off a miss from Uzun and made a free throw for the final two-point margin of victory.

“It’s really just more of the same: Proud of our team for finding a way, you know? It’s not been pretty, but we’ve we’ve been able to find ways to win ballgames and that’s what it takes in this league,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “We have to figure out why we’re not starting well. We’ve got to be able to maintain momentum, but we found a way to pull it out and, and I’m proud of our group for continuing to do that and multiple people making big plays down the stretch.”

The Sun (7-0) floundered in the opening minutes, starting 0-for-4 from the field as the Wings (3-3) opened up an 11-point lead. All-Star center Brionna Jones struggled to contain 6-foot-7 Teaira McCowan defensively, and she led the Wings in scoring after the first quarter with eight points. Connecticut’s entire starting lineup came out sluggish, all five entering the second quarter with a negative plus-minus. Meanwhile, all four bench players who saw the floor ended the first in the positives.

Thomas was uncharacteristically inefficient in the first quarter shooting 1-for-5 from the field, but she got back to her regular production in the second. Thomas was well on her way to a triple-double at halftime with seven points, six assists and five rebounds, and the 2023 MVP runner-up finished just a single rebound shy of the line. She ended with 15 points, a season-high 14 assists and nine rebounds plus two steals.

“They kept leaving Breezy and just letting her have the jump shot,” said Thomas, who made nine of her assists to Jones. “So credit to my teammates. We knew they were a team that like over-helping (on defense), so I just kind of found a lot of openings … It’s always great when you can have a night like this, but none of it’s possible without my teammates.”

Tiffany Mitchell had arguably her best performance in a Sun uniform, leading the team with five points after the first quarter. Mitchell drained a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first that palpably shifted the momentum for Connecticut, cutting the deficit to a single score entering the second. She was also an anchor for the defensive effort with a team-high three steals.

The Sun entered halftime up 40-34 after an 11-0 run in the second quarter gave them their first lead of the game. DeWanna Bonner carried the momentum into the third, scoring four points in under a minute to become the first Connecticut player in double digits. Bonner ended with her least-efficient performance of the season shooting 5-for-13 but still logged 12 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Connecticut fared far better in the second half against McCowan, holding the Wings center to just two points. Olivia Nelson-Ododa was impressive off the bench against the sixth-year veteran, holding her scoreless in nine minutes on the floor while logging two boards and a steal. Jones, who is still on limited playing time recovering from an ACL rupture, finished with a season-high 22 points plus four rebounds in 30 minutes.

“It’s great to see breezy out there … but again, we’ve got to be smarter,” White said. “My hope was to not have to get to 30 tonight. It was to stay around that 25, but the game called for it … I think she looks confident. She’s really back in a rhythm, and it’s just it’s nice to see her out there. You forget just how many things she does on the floor for you and just how nice and what a luxury is to have her back on the floor.”

Ogunbowale led Dallas with 21 points, just one point better than her season low. The All-Star guard powered the Wings down the stat sheet too with seven assists, four rebounds and two steals, but she shot just 8-for-21 from the field. Maddy Siegrist was Dallas’s most efficient player on offense with 17 points on 8-for-8 from the field, though she also picked up five fouls.

“Look, you’re not going to stop a player like Arike. The thing that you want to try to do is make every shot tough, and then you’ve got to live with tough shots,” White said. “It seemed like every time we got the ball out of Arike’s hands in that early fourth quarter, somebody on their team made a big shot, and that’s just a credit to them. Like I said, they’re good teams in this league, and sometimes you got to you got to play the odds … We just made some tough defensive plays down the stretch that saved the game for us.”