DeWanna Bonner recorded her 7,000th point in her WNBA career as the Connecticut Sun took advantage of a mistake-filled display by the Phoenix Mercury, winning 70-47 on Tuesday night.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Bonner scored 19 points, Brionna Jones collected 16 and Alyssa Thomas had 10 for the Sun who improved to a perfect 6-0 on the season. Connecticut remains the No. 1 team in the WNBA with this victory.
Natasha Cloud led the Mercury (3-3) in scoring with nine points in Phoenix’s second consecutive defeat. Not one player on Phoenix reached the double-digit point mark.
Slow Start, Sun Capitalizes off of Mercury Mistakes
The offense was ice-cold in the first quarter as both teams couldn’t get into a consistent rhythm, with Connecticut up just 15-13. Phoenix was 0-for-6 from three and 5-for-15 (33.3%) from the field while the Sun was shooting 6-for-20 (30%) in the initial 10-minute frame.
A persistent issue for the Mercury lately has been the amount of turnovers that Phoenix has given up and while the players and head coach Nate Tibbetts have talked about it being a problem at home, it continued on the road. Phoenix had 36 combined turnovers against the Dallas Wings (19) and Washington Mystics (17) before the game vs. the Sun.
Even though Connecticut only scored two points off giveaways, the Mercury finished the first half with 12 turnovers and a season-high 20 overall.
“It’s definitely an issue with our offense,” Tibbetts said. “One of the main keys coming into the game was to take care of the ball. It’s the ones in transition where we get stops, trying to throw it ahead and turn it over. It’s deflating to your defense. It’s something we are going to take a look at, but it is definitely an issue and we got to clean it up.”
Where the Sun was taking care of business was in the paint, outscoring Phoenix 36-26 in that area. Bonner had 11 points before halftime, helping the Sun create some breathing room, leading 38-25.
With the Mercury’s offensive problems mounting more and more, frustration raised. Natasha Cloud received a technical foul after not having her jersey tucked in her shorts and demanding one of the referees to give her the ball. Some of Phoenix’s players were left shaking their heads in disbelief at what was going on as time kept ticking.
The shots from beyond the arc were not going in almost at all, with Phoenix shooting 1-of-27 (3.7%) from 3-point range and Connecticut not doing much better, 5-for-24 (20.8%), on the night.
“The shots were not falling,” Mercury center Natasha Mack said. “We were getting good looks, open threes, layups. The shots were just not falling.”
"We were getting good looks, open threes, layups. The shots were just not falling."
Natasha Mack kept it short when our @AlecCipollini asked about what went wrong for the Phoenix Mercury after shooting 1-for-27 (3.7%) from three.#ValleyTogether #WNBA pic.twitter.com/Yza1wo2PCL
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) May 29, 2024
At 9:19 of the fourth quarter, Bonner made a mid-range jumper for the 7,000th point of her career. A two-time WNBA champion while in Phoenix, she played for the Mercury from 2009 to 2019 before heading to Connecticut in 2020.
Astou Ndour-Fall sealed the game with a late three to secure the Sun’s victory.
In a game to forget, Phoenix outrebounded the Sun 43-38 and had more blocks, 9-4. Connecticut led in steals, 12-7.
Mercury Almost Broke Two-Decade-Long Record in Loss
Held to just four points for 5:42 of the final quarter, the Mercury was creeping on breaking a two-decade-long franchise record for the lowest points scored in a game ever. Back in June of 2004 on the road against the Seattle Storm, Phoenix was held to just 45 points.
The possibility of the record being broken was getting close before Liz Dixon would tie the total with a layup with 2:08 remaining in the game. To avoid making history for the wrong reason, Bertsch scored a couple of free throws with 1:23 left, reaching 47 points.
When talking about how the Mercury should put this game behind them, Bertsch believes it is a one-off and they will be ready to play on Wednesday against the New York Liberty.
“I don’t think that we can linger too long on it,” Bertsch said. It was a rough game for us. We got to watch video and we got to move on because we got one more tomorrow. Pushing the issue, watching all of our mistakes and all of our missed shots back, that’s not going to help anything. I think we will watch what we did well, see that we had the open shot and made the right decision and we just missed it, watch some of our turnovers about what we can clean up. It’s one of those games where if you try and break it down and look at it too hard, it doesn’t really help anything.”
Mack chimed in off of what Bertsch stated, thinking that the only way Phoenix should look at is what is in front of them.
“In basketball, on the next play and you make a mistake, you can’t linger on that because it is going to bring negativity and doubt,” Mack said. “You are going to doubt yourself, and you don’t want to doubt your confidence. All you can do is let that one go and move on to the next game.”
"All you can do is let that one go and move on to the next game.”
Our @AlecCipollini asked Morgan Bertsch and Natasha Mack about how they will move on to the next game after "rough game" for Phoenix Mercury. #ValleyTogether #WNBA pic.twitter.com/Yl45bVlQQN
— Burn City Sports (@BurnCitySports) May 29, 2024
Next Games
Mercury: Away at New York Liberty (4-2) | May 29 | 4 p.m. PT
Sun: Home vs. Dallas Wings (3-2) | May 31 | 4:30 p.m. PT
Mercury’s Kahleah Copper named WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics and Phoenix Mercury news for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
