By Tiffany Williams –
In the American Dream City, Arlington, Texas the Connecticut Sun Friday night wrapped their regular season series against the Dallas Wings sweeping the series 3-0, with 109-91 victory.
DeWanna Bonner had an impressive game with a season-high 29 points, three rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block in the win.She nailed four three-point field goals, moving her past Tamika Catchings into eighth all-time in three-point field goals made in WNBA history (608).
“I think probably a combination. A lot of the stuff that we have typically run for DB, we’re running for Marina as well. So DB gets to rest a little bit more offensively. So I think that certainly helps,” Connecticut Sun Head Coach Stephanie White said postgame when asked about DeWanna Bonner.” “She was shooting the ball incredibly well today in shootaround, in pregame. So I know she felt really good. Also, for somebody like DB, 15 years in the league, getting some rest over the break is really impactful. You can come back, be fresh, and she got her rhythm and timing back pretty quickly.”
Marina Mabrey, who was acquired by the Sun in July in a trade with the Sky, made her debut with the Sun in Friday night’s win, and finished with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. She also finished a team-high +/- +19. Mabrey notched 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal to lead Connecticut through the first ten minutes of action.
“Yeah, she knows how to play. She moves really well with and without the ball. She makes the right reads and the right plays. She knocks down shots and it takes a little bit of pressure off of DB,” Coach White said when asked about Marina Mabrey. “We don’t have to move her around quite as much and she’s versatile. So we can play her in multiple positions. I think she fits really well with our core group just in terms of understanding our actions, being effective in our actions, and making the right plays.”
Marina Mabrey following the game said, “Yeah, I mean, obviously there’s so many players on this team that can play, and I’m just here to help us try to win a championship in any way that I can, but no matter what, like, I am who I am, so whatever jersey that I put on, like, I’m going to be who I am, um, because I feel like that’s the best way to help my team be my authentic self no matter what, so, um, whatever happens, I’m still going to be ready to play whenever.”
Alyssa Thomas finished two rebounds shy of a triple-double with 12 points, seven rebounds, season-high tying 14 assists and two steals on the night. Ty Harris finished the night with 14 points, going 3/4 from beyond the arc, Brionna Jones added 12 points, Olivia Nelson-Ododa tallied 10 points, and Veronica Burton tallied nine points.
When asked about Veronica Burton’s performance tonight, Coach White said, “Yeah, she was big for us. She came in and she commanded the offense, got us into the things that we wanted to get into, did a really good job of facilitating. She’s just a different type of point guard than Ty or Marina when Marina’s running the point. And she impacts the game on the defensive end as well. She plays really hard, gets a lot of deflections. She’s involved in the action. So she came in and was big for us, and we’re gonna need that. We’ve gotta be able to get a consistent rotation. We’ve gotta be able to get production from our bench, and we were able to do that tonight.”
Connecticut finished the night with 46 points in the paint, 11 second chance points, nine fast break points, and 17 points off turnovers.
Coach Stephanie White following Friday night’s win said, “Really proud of our group. I thought we came out and we took a hit to start the ball game and regrouped and recovered. Our ball movement on offense was exceptional. Our defensive execution was pretty good for a new group that was playing together and it was just a big time win for us on the road to start the second half of the season.”
When asked what the starting lineup looks like when everyone’s back, Coach White said, “Yeah, we were just talking about that in our coach’s locker room, actually. It’s one of those things, I feel a little bit like the Celtics this year. We’ve got six starters, right? We’ve got six players that can start. There’s gonna be one player that’s not starting, and there’s gonna be one player that’s not finishing. And that could be determined by the game. It could be determined by matchups. It could be determined by style. So we don’t have a solid answer on that yet. We’re still kicking that around as well. It’s impactful. It’s somebody who can come in the game off the bench and impact the team. And from an energy standpoint, from a production standpoint, it’s really important. So I don’t know. I do, I feel like we have six starters. Somebody’s not gonna be happy about not starting, but all six of them are gonna play starters minutes. So that’s just the hand that we’re dealt. I can tell you I’d rather have that hand than some of the other hands we’ve been dealt before, so I’m excited about it.”
The Sun continues their two day weekend road trip with their next stop in College Park, Georgia on Sunday afternoon at 3:00PM.
The regular season series between the Sun and Atlanta Dream is 2-1 with Connecticut leading the series, and looking to wrap up the series 3-1.
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