Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas (25) had 17 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists but New York advanced to the WNBA finals with a 87-84 win Sunday over Connecticut.
UNCASVILLE, Oct. 1, 2023 – When the WNBA season began in May, it was the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces, the two so-called super teams, that were expected to dominate the season and play for a championship.
And it will be the Liberty and the defending champion Aces playing for a WNBA championship beginning next week. But the Connecticut Sun didn’t make it easy for the Liberty to earn a spot in the finals for the first time since 2002.
It took two MVPs with Connecticut backgrounds to lift the Liberty to a hard-fought 87-84 victory Sunday at the Mohegan Sun Arena and clinch the series for New York.
Breanna Stewart, the former UConn legend who won her second WNBA MVP earlier this week, had a game-high 27 points while Jonquel Jones, who won a MVP with the Sun in 2019 and helped Connecticut to two WNBA finals, had 25 points, a team-leading 15 rebounds, four blocks and a crucial steal in the final minute.
Jones and Stewart scored 20 of New York’s 21 points in the fourth quarter as the Liberty held off the late charge of a Sun team desperately trying to win and force a deciding game five in this best-of-five series. Both had key three-point shots in the final quarter.
As usual, the Sun were led by their leader, Alyssa Thomas, who had another triple double – her seventh of the season – with a team-high 17 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists. Thomas left the game for a few minutes in the fourth quarter after Jones fell on her going for a rebound. But Thomas missed only about two minutes of playing time before returning to a rousing ovation from the Sun crowd.
The Sun led by 10 points in the first half only to see New York regain the lead in the second half and lead by as many as 11.
New York led by eight after three quarters, 66-58 but the Sun battled and played tough.
Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington, who had a playoff-career high of 14 points, banked a shot off the backboard to cut the lead to six. Jones and Thomas battled for a rebound and Jones landed awkwardly on Thomas, sending the All-Star to the locker room.
Connecticut responded without their leader. Hayes scored off a nice pass from Carrington and less than 30 seconds later, it was Ty Harris sinking a jumper over Stewart to cut the lead to two, 66-64 with 8:04 left in the game and the battle was on.
“We’re playing against a great team and they’re going to make runs,” Stewart said. “All we need to do is chip away and continue to be aggressive. If we stay together, we would win and we did Everyone has our back in everything we are doing.”
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said her team was “relentlessly persistent.”
“Because that’s what Game 4s require,” she said. “When you bring all these amazing players together, we work a lot on our culture. And I think you can see where it connected. Because when you have connection, you have commitment. And these girls are committed to each other and this program and how we want to play so it’s great to watch.”
Carrington drained a three-point shot with 5:13 left to tie the game at 69-69. Stewart hit two foul shots to put the Liberty back up by two and then made a block of Carrington shot with 4:00 remaining.
But the Sun controlled the rebound and veteran DeWanna Bonner – not afraid to take a big shot in a big moment — drained a three-point shot from 24-feet away off a feed from Thomas to put the Sun ahead, 72-71.
Jones responded with a wide-open three point shot and Thomas scored a basket to tie the game at 74-74 with 3:15 remaining.
New York’s Jonquel Jones blocks (35) a shot from Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner during game 4 of Sunday’s WNBA semifinal game in Uncasville. Jones had 11 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter.
Leading by one, Stewart drained a wide-open three-point shot with 2:07 left for a two point lead, 77-75 and added two more free throws with 1:33 remaining to extend the lead to four, 79-75.
Again, Bonner was fearless with a three-point shot from 27 feet away with 1:21 left to cut the lead to one. With 54 seconds left, Jones was fouled after pulling down a rebound from a missed Stewart jumper. Jones hit both free throws to extend the lead to three, 81-78.
As the Sun tried to set up their next play, Jones anticipated the pass to Thomas from Tiffany Hayes and stole the ball. Jones was fouled on her way to the basket and sank both free throws for an 83-78 lead.
“I just felt like [Thomas] was gonna pop out and try to get the ball and I felt like I was in a really good position to make the play and I just went and did it,” Jones said.
Harris hit two three-point shots in the final 30 seconds, including one with 7.6 seconds left to cut the Liberty lead to one, 85-84. Stewart sank two foul shots with 6.1 seconds left for an 87-84 lead.
The Sun couldn’t get a shot off in the final six seconds and the season was over.
Hayes had 15 points with Bonner added 12 for the Sun, who were playing in the WNBA semifinals for the fifth straight season.
“We have a ton to be proud of,” said Thomas, who shrugged off a question about if she was hurt when leaving the game after Jones fell on her. “We could have easily given up this season. Everyone counts us out, as usual, but we fought hard today despite everything that happened.”
Thomas pointed out that the Liberty took 25 foul shots and sank 21. The Sun took just eight foul shots in the game, making three.
Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas keeps a close eye on New York’s Breanna Stewart during Sunday’s WNBA playoff game in Uncasville.
“We had a lot of new (players) and this was a learning year for us,” Thomas said. “And we were learning again (after Brionna Jones tore her achilles tendon in June). No thought anything of us and we had a lot of (players) prove why they are in this league. Look what we accomplished. I am super proud and super happy I was able to play with this group.”
The Sun won a franchise record 27 games and finished as the No. 3 seed. They advanced to the playoffs for the seventh straight year and to the semifinals for the fifth consecutive season.
“It’s been a season resilience and toughness,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “Having to adjust to taking on new roles, they continuously stepped up to the challenge. They competed at a high level and just willed ourselves and our team to do things I have never seen.”
Thomas had her third triple-double postseason performance and her 11th triple double of her career. She had the most first place votes for league MVP but fell seven points short of Stewart.
“I’ve had a season you’ve never seen in this league and probably won’t see again unless I do it,” Thomas said. “Let’s be reasonable. Triple doubles and the most double doubles in league history. We’re talking about league records. For me, I have a lot to be proud of. No one can take away the fact I will always be in the record books.”
NOTES: The Liberty (21-25) made 18 more free throws than the Sun (3-8). That is the largest free throw disparity in a playoff game since 2016, when the Sparks made 18 more than the Sky (28-10) on 10/4/16. … Thomas finished the 2023 postseason with 72 assists in seven games, three shy of the franchise single postseason record she set last season in 12 games (75).
New York 87, Connecticut 84
At Uncasville
New York (87) Laney 8-18 2-3 21, Stewart 9-20 6-67 27, Jones 7-14 9-12 25, Ionescu 3-8 2-2 9, Vandersloot 1-4 0-0 3, Thornton 0-3 2-2 2, Dolson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-68 21-25 87
Connecticut (84) Allen 3-6 0-0 7, Bonner 4-13 0-0 12, Thomas 8-16 1-4 17, Hayes 6-11 0-0 15, Hiedeman 3-11 1-2 7, Carrington 6-10 1-2 14, Harris 4-8 0-0 10, Nelson-Ododa 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 35-77 3-8 84
New York 19 26 21 21 — 87
Connecticut 23 21 14 26 – 84
Three-point goals: New York 10-22 (Laney 3-7, Stewart 3-5, Jones 2-3, Ionescu 1-4, Vandersloot 1-1, Thornton 0-1, Dolson 0-1); Connecticut 11-25 (Allen 1-3, Bonner 4-8, Hayes 3-5, Hiedeman 0-4, Carrington 1-2, Harris 2-3). Att. 8196
WNBA semifinals
Sunday, Sept 24
Connecticut 78, New York 63
Tuesday, Sept. 26
New York 84, Connecticut 77
Friday, Sept. 29
New York 92, Connecticut 81
Sunday, Oct. 1
New York 87, Connecticut 84, New York wins series, 3-1
