WASHINGTON, June 29 – After a blazing 9-1 start to begin the season and race to the top of the WNBA, the Connecticut Sun have lost three straight games.
They had one bad quarter against Chicago – getting outscored by 21 points — in an 18-point loss on the road. The Sun erased a 13-point deficit on Wednesday at Dallas only to see the Wings tighten up on defense in the final minutes and sneak away with a one-point victory.
On Saturday, the Sun got torched. And they will have to live with that for a week with their next game on Saturday, July 6, at the Mohegan Sun Arena against Minnesota at 2 p.m.
The Washington Mystics led from end to end and handed Connecticut their most lopsided loss in team history with a 43-point defeat in a 102-59 decision broadcast nationally on ESPN. The previous biggest loss was a 34-point defeat against Indiana in 2012.
With the win, the Mystics (9-3) took over first place in the WNBA while the Sun (9-4) concluded their three-game road trip in ugly fashion.
Jonquel Jones had 15 points and seven rebounds for Connecticut and was the only Sun player in double figures. Rachel Banham and Brioanna Jones each came off the bench to score eight points. The eight points was a season-high for Jones.
“We got punched in the mouth today,” Sun coach Curt Miller said on Twitter. “They were attack, attack, attacking. Give them credit. They are on the same good streak that we were to begin the season.”
Shekinna Stricklen had seven points while Jasmine Thomas had six. Alyssa Thomas, who had a career-high 28 points in the loss at Dallas on Wednesday, scored just four points on six shots from the floor.
Elena Della Donne led the Mystics with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Ariel Atkins added 15 points. Kristi Toliver scored 14 points as Washington won their fifth straight game and had six players in double figures.
Washington scored the first five points of the game and led 7-5 at one point before the Mystics ran off nine straight points as the Sun missed five consecutive shots from the floor.
Stricklen hit a three-pointer with 2:39 left in the first quarter to cut the lead to nine but Connecticut never got any closer than that.
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