Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner, right, drives past Minnesota’s Dorka Juhász in Sunday’s WNBA game in Uncasville.
UNCASVILLE, Conn., July 30, 2023 – The last time Dorka Juhász stood on the floor of the Mohegan Sun Arena in March, she was surrounded by her University of Connecticut teammates celebrating after the Huskies beat Villanova by 11 points to win the Big East Tournament championship and secure another bid to the NCAA tournament.
It was one of her fondest memories of college basketball.
The rookie from the Minnesota Lynx added another special memory from the Mohegan Sun Arena floor on Sunday. Juhász blocked a potential game-winning shot from Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner with 1.8 seconds remaining to lift the Lynx to an 87-83 win over the Sun before 8,275 fans.
Minnesota, which lost their first six games of the season, won for the third time in four games with five players in double figures, led by Kayla McBride with 19 points, including four shots from three-point range.
The Lynx (13-13) beat New York by five on Friday night with both wins coming with All-Star Napheesa Collier on the bench after spraining her right ankle last Wednesday in a win over Washington. Collier, the former UConn All-American and team’s leading scorer (21.8 ppg), is expected to be out for seven to 10 days.
Connecticut (18-7) wasted another 30-point performance from Bonner, who had a game-high 31 points, sinking 10-of-22 from the floor. The 34-year-old All-Star became the first Sun player to score at least 30 points in consecutive games.
Alyssa Thomas chipped in with another triple double – her fourth of the season with 17 points, 11 assists and 14 rebounds. Let’s not take this excellence for granted. Before this season began, there were just nine triple regular season double performances in league history.
But it was for naught. Bonner and Thomas got little help from their teammates. DiJonai Carrington had 11 points. But the Sun shot 38.9 percent from the floor and allowed Minnesota to sink 57.4 percent from the floor – the best shooting percentage for an opponent this season.
“Minnesota players their butts off and takes advantage when you make mistakes and they took advantage of every mistake we made,” Sun head coach Stephanie White said. “They outplayed us. They outexecuted us.”
“We played hard but we didn’t play smart,” White said. “We didn’t finish. We had 11 missed layups in the first half and missed 15 or 16 (layups) in the ballgame.
“We have too many moments in the ballgame, offensively, when we hold the basketball and we can’t do that,” she said. “We can’t hold it and wait for someone to set a screen or let five or six seconds of the shot clock run off. We have to get it moving.”
As much as the Sun struggled, they had a chance to steal the ballgame from the Lynx, who led by as many as eight points.
Minnesota’s Aerial Powers (3) tries to stop Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas from getting to the basket in Sunday’s WNBA game in Uncasville.
Carrington scored in the lane on a beautiful feed from Thomas with 1:21 remaining to cut the Minnesota lead to one, 80-79. McBride ran the baseline and scored to put the Lynx up three, 82-79 with 1:10 left before Thomas scored in the lane off a nice feed from Nattisha Hiedeman with 55.6 seconds left to cut the lead to one, 82-81.
It looked like Minnesota’s Diamond Miller hit a deep three-pointer from the corner with 41 seconds left but it was waived off because Lynx teammate Lindsay Allen ran over Carrington and was called for an offensive foul.
But Carrington missed a potential go-ahead basket in the lane with 26.2 seconds left and the Lynx pulled down the rebound. Allen sank two foul shots to put Minnesota up three, 84-81 before Bonner scored on a drive to the basket with 12.6 seconds left to again cut the lead to one.
McBride sank one of two free throws with 11.7 seconds remaining to give the Lynx an 85-83 lead.
The Sun could have forced overtime with two points or win it with a three-point shot. White said the plan was to drive to the basket.
Bonner got the ball on the wing and ended up taking a long three-point shot. Juhász got a few fingers on the ball that fell short of the rim.
“That was tough,” Bonner said of the loss. “That’s going to sit with me for a long time. I think I waited a bit too long for the play to develop and it didn’t. But (Juhász) got a hand on it. Her fingertips barely got it. It was a good play for her.”
Minnesota’s Dorka Juhász (14) tries to block Connecticut’s D.iJonai Carrington in Sunday’s WNBA game in Uncasville.
Juhász was happy she kept her feet on the floor and didn’t leap at Bonner trying to block the shot.
“She wanted that responsibility,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “That was a big decision for us in that timeout. Who would we have guard (Bonner). That’s a tough one. I appreciate that Dorka learned from earlier in the game. She stayed disciplined and made (Bonner) shoot over her.”
Juhász admitted that Bonner had schooled her earlier in the game.
“This was my chance to redeem myself,” she said when defending Bonner’s final shot. “I thought she would go to the basket. But she got back into that shooting motion and it was my time to make it close.”
Juhász finished with 11 points and six rebounds while Jessica Shepard came off the bench to score 12 points and pull down a team-high 14 rebounds. Allen, who scored 16 points, was 6-of-6 from the floor in the second quarter. Minnesota shot 61 percent from the floor in the first half.
With the win, Minnesota snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Sun dating back to May 2021. The two teams meet again on Tuesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena beginning at 7 p.m.
Minnesota 87, Connecticut 83
At Uncasville, Conn.
Minnesota (87) Miller 2-7 3-3 7, Milic 3-7 0-0 6, Juhász 5-10 0-1 11, McBride 7-19 1-2 19, Allen 6-8 4-6 16, Carleton 0-1 0-0 0, Shepard 5-7 2-3 12, Mitchell 1-3 0-0 2, Powers 6-8 1-1 14. Totals 35-61 11-16 87
Connecticut (83) Allen 3-6 0-0 6, Bonner 10-22 9-9 31, Thomas 6-16 5-6 17, Hayes 1-4 1-2 3, Hiedeman 3-8 2-2 9, Carrington 4-12 3-4 11, Nelson-Ododa 1-2 4-4 6, Harris 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-72 24-27 83
Minnesota (13-13) 23 25 20 19 — 87
Connecticut (18-7) 21 23 18 21 — 83
Three-point goals: Minnesota 6-19 (Miller 0-3, Milic 0-1, Juhász 1-3, McBride -7, Allen 0-2, Carleton 0-1, Shepard 0-1, Powers 1-1); Connecticut 3-17 (Allen 0-2, Bonner 2-8, Hayes 0-1, Hiedeman 1-4, Carrington 0-2). Att. 8275
