Six Connecticut players scored in double figures on Friday night and the Sun led by double figures for the final 29 1/2 minutes of an 88-72 win over the Indiana Fever in Indianapolis.
Tiffany Hayes led the Sun (20-7) with 18 points, while DeWanna Bonner added 14. Alyssa Thomas came up shy of her third straight triple-double, winding up with 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds after producing the first 20-20-10 triple-double in league history on Tuesday night.
DiJonai Carrington tallied 11 points for Connecticut, while Natisha Hiedeman and Olivia Nelson-Ododa each contributed 10 points. Nelson-Ododa also grabbed 10 rebounds and registered a plus-20 rating off the bench. Connecticut canned 49.2 percent of its field-goal attempts and produced a 32-25 advantage on the boards.
The Sun won for the fifth time in six games.
Rookie Aliyah Boston scored a game-high 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Indiana (7-20), but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Fever’s 13th loss in 15 games. Kelsey Mitchell added 13, Erica Wheeler netted 12 points and Emma Cannon contributed 11.
The Fever shot poorly, netting only 38.6 percent of their field-goal attempts, and coughed up 19 turnovers. The Sun enjoyed a 40-20 advantage in points in the paint, consistently generating easier looks with good passing.
Connecticut needed about half of the first quarter to get into gear. Once it did, it produced an 11-0 run to take the lead for good and scored a whopping 24 points in the final 5:46 of the period to take a 31-22 advantage.
Things only got more lopsided in the second quarter as the Sun kept converting while Indiana kept missing. The margin reached 56-30 in the final minute on a 3-pointer by Tyasha Harris and was 56-33 at halftime.
The Fever made a big push for the first eight minutes of the third quarter, taking advantage of sloppiness by Connecticut. A six-point possession pulled the hosts within 65-54 at the 2:12 mark before the Sun ripped off the last nine points of the period. Thomas assisted Rebecca Allen for a layup to restore a 20-point lead at the quarter’s end.
–Field Level Media
