Mercury Too Hot for Sun

Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, AZ – The (9-3) Phoenix Mercury defeated the (7-4) Connecticut Sun 89-72 behind a great team effort as five players were in double figures. This was their seventh win in a row

The Sun were without two of their most important players, Chiney Oqwumike and Alyssa Thomas. “We learned from playing against Washington, we came out not ready and not focused, so tonight we were like, we are not doing that,” stated Dewanna Bonner.

Phoenix lost to the Washington Mystics earlier this season without their star player, Elena Delle Donne.

The Mercury came out executing on offense and defense jumping out to 16-9 lead in the first quarter behind ball movement and perimeter shooting. On defense, the Mercury were rotating forcing the Sun into tough outside shots.

Phoenix continued their hot shooting throughout the quarter and led 26-15 after the first quarter. The Mercury were led by Sancho Lyttle who scored six points in the opening quarter. Courtney Williams led the Sun with seven points.

The second quarter started off sloppy for both teams as neither team had a made field goal for the first three minutes of the quarter. It took quite a while for Phoenix to find their groove but during the second half of the second quarter the shots started to to fall as Diana Taurasi and Bonner got hot.

Connecticut struggled to find any rhythm on offense scoring six points in the quarter. Phoenix was up 43-21 at the half. Lyttle continued to shoot well going 7-7 from the field with 14 points in the first half.

In the third quarter, both teams started off hot going back-and-forth scoring baskets. The Sun finally seemed to find something positive on offense but could not stop Phoenix on the other end.

Phoenix continued to dominate pushing the lead to 21 (66-45) after the third quarter.

The fourth quarter started just like the third with both of the Sun and Mercury scoring back and forth. The Sun started to gain a little ground after the Mercury’s reserves were put in the game.

After the lead shrunk to 71-58 with 5:08 remaining in the quarter, Phoenix inserted their starters back into the game and took control from there.

The Sun did have two bright spots during the performance as Morgan Tuck scored 20 points and Brionna Jones scored a career high 17. The Mercury were led by Taurasi with 19 and Bonner with 15.