Dorka Juhász comes up with game-winning play to lead Minnesota Lynx to win over Sun in return to Connecticut

UNCASVILLE — A little over four months ago, Dorka Juhász and her UConn women’s basketball teammates were being showered in confetti as they celebrated winning a Big East championship at Mohegan Sun Arena.

On Sunday, Juhász was back in the same building, this time as a professional WNBA player, making a game-winning play for the Minnesota Lynx.

With the game clock winding down and the Lynx up two, Connecticut Sun forward DeWanna Bonner dribbled into a 3-point shot, hoping to make some heroics happen. But Juhász had other plans. The 6-foot-5 forward trailed her every move and tipped  the ball away as it left Bonner’s fingertips en route to a 87-83 victory for Minnesota (13-13).

“Winning the Big East championship (was) on top of the list, but now as a professional career, that winning block, I think that was awesome,” Juhász said, “Especially DB was having an amazing game and she was hard to stop and a lot of times she got me just guarding her. So that was a great thing for me to be able to just kind of stay on my own in an ISO play and just get that block. But it feels good, it’s definitely gonna be up there on my list as an accomplishment there at Mohegan Sun.”

Juhász finished the afternoon with 11 points, six rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.

Bonner led the (Sun 18-7) in scoring with 31 points while also adding five rebounds, two assists and three steals.

Thomas recorded her fourth triple-double of the 2023 season and sixth of her career in the regular season with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, along with two steals.

The UConn fan heavy crowd produced lots of loud cheers for Juhász as she was announced as part of the Lynx’s starting lineup. She then won the opening tip for Minnesota.

The two teams went back and forth throughout the first half with Bonner leading the way for the Sun. She had 10 points within the first five minutes of the game.

Juhász scored her first basket as a professional player in Mohegan Sun Arena with 5:36 left, when she drove inside for a layup off an assist from Lindsay Allen to give the Lynx an 11-10 lead.

With less than two and a half minutes left in the first,  Juhász tried to score another basket inside, but her shot was swatted away by a familiar face: former Husky teammate Olivia Nelson-Ododa.

Nelson-Ododa then grabbed an offensive rebound off a miss from fellow former Husky Tiffany Hayes on the other end. She was fouled by Jessica Shepard on the way back up and  made both shots at the line to tie game at 17-17.

“I forgot how long Liv is, obviously not being on the same team, but she definitely got me a couple of times with those blocks,” Juhász said. “She’s been doing great. I’m loving what I’m seeing from her just being more free, getting more minutes, great minutes that she’s giving. And coming off the bench, she’s a power, so I’m super happy for her.”

The Sun trailed the Lynx 23-21 at the end of the first quarter.

In the opening minute of the second frame, Juhász found Aerial Powers for a 3-pointer to give Minnesota a 26-21 lead, its largest of the day thus far.

Nelson-Ododa and Juhasz continued to go back and forth on both ends of the floor. Nelson-Ododa scored a layup inside off an assist from DiJonai Carrington to trim the Sun’s deficit to one point with under eight minutes left and then blocked her former teammate’s shot on the other end right after.

A few minutes later, Nelson-Ododa drew a foul on Diamond Miller and made two shots at the line to give the Sun a 31-30 lead.

“These matchups are fun when we actually go against each other after being teammates and and just finding success (against) each other, and I think that’s how you get better,” Juhász said. “I’m very happy to see that she’s finding her stride and she’s she’s been a key player for their team.”

The two teams traded blows back and forth with neither able to pull away until Kayla McBride drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lynx a 44-36 lead with two minutes left.

The Sun called timeout and managed to make things closer after Thomas found a spark following a slow start to the afternoon. Still, Connecticut trailed Minnesota 48-44 at the halftime break.

Hayes opened the third quarter with a layup to trim the Sun’s deficit to two points. Less than a minute later, Bonner made a layup off an assist from Thomas to tie the game at 48-48. And with 7:55 left, Rebecca Allen joined in on the layup party off an assist from Bonner to give Connecticut a 50-48 lead.

Juhász came up with a response on the other end, though. She dribbled into a smooth pullup jumper to tie the game right back up.

A pair of back-to-back triples from McBride once again paved the way for the Lynx to build their lead, going up 62-58 with her second with 3:15 left.

“I think the biggest frustration, disappointment from all of us really is just that we know what (McBride) does,” Sun head coach Stephanie White said. “We’ve got to fight through, we’ve got to get around, we have to have multiple levels of effort in terms of our defensive execution.”

Connecticut trailed Minnesota 68-61 entering the final quarter of play.

Juhász opened the fourth quarter with strong defense to keep Bonner from scoring on one end and then scored a layup plus the foul on the other. Though she didn’t get the shot at the line to fall, the bucket extended Minnesota’s lead to 70-62.

That was one of few stops the Minnesota defense could come up with for Bonner throughout the afternoon, and she wouldn’t be held back for long. She hit a triple off an assist from Thomas to get the Sun within 72-68 with 7:22 left. And shortly after that she made a pair of free throws to make it a two-point game.

The Lynx managed to keep the Sun at bay, though, including with a layup from Juhász to extend her team’s lead to five points around the three-minute mark.

Thomas got the 10th-assist needed for triple-double in crunch time when Connecticut needed it most, finding Carrington with a beautiful dish inside to make it a 80-79 game with 1:22 left.

After a layup from McBride on the other end, Thomas scored a hook shot. And then Carrington drew a charge on Allen. Still, after shots at the line from Allen several seconds later, the Sun found themselves down 84-81 with 19.5 seconds left.

Thomas found a cutting Bonner inside for a layup to make it a one-point game and the Sun had a shot after McBride only made one of two free throws. But Juhász came up with the true play of the afternoon.

“I was thinking she’s gonna go to the basket trying to get fouled because she’s very great at using her body to get into you and finishing,”Juhász said. “But then once she got back into that shooting motion, I was like, ‘This is my time, I gotta go close.’ But it was just a couple of fingers, not much.

“I just wanted to make sure that I was very focused on that one last play just because obviously she got me a lot of times before so I was like, ‘This is my chance to redeem myself in that one.’ But she’s a great player and it could have been a little farther away and might be a three that she made, so I’m very happy that I was able to kind of find that space of not fouling her but trying to interfere her shot a little bit. But it was great to have for my first homecoming game and that’s how it ended.”

The Sun and Lynx are set for a rematch on Tuesday night. Action will tip-off at 7 p.m. on ESPN.