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Sun lead wire-to-wire in victory over Dallas

Connecticut’s Ty Harris (42)  handles the ball during in Saturday’s WNBA game game in Arlington. The Sun won, 85-67. (Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Connecticut Sun have been lamenting their slow starts this season. They got a fast one on Saturday. The Sun scored the first 10 points of the game and didn’t allow a basket for the first 2:42 of the contest as Connecticut led wire-to-wire in an 85-67 win over Dallas in Texas.

The Sun (12-1) have won 12 of their first 13 games of the season and are the only team left in the league with an undefeated record on the road (5-0).

Rachel Banham led the Sun in scoring with 16 points, three rebounds, two assists and one block in 17 minutes off the bench. Alyssa Thomas finished a rebound and assist shy of a triple-double, notching 13 points, nine rebounds and nine assists on the day.

DiJonai Carrington notched 14 points, one rebound, one assist, one steal and one block in 24 minutes of action. Brionna Jones finished with 12 points, a season-high eight rebounds, one assist, and three steals, while Ty Harris added 10 points, one rebound and four assists for Connecticut.

The Sun began the contest on a 10-0 run, holding the Wings scoreless until the 7:14 mark in the first quarter. Both teams scored 17 points the rest of the way, with the Sun taking a 27-17 lead into the second quarter.

Dallas was able to cut Connecticut’s lead to seven, 36-29, with 2:45 to go in the first half, but Connecticut finished the quarter on a 7-4 run to take a ten-point advantage into the locker room, 43-33.

Jones and Carrington each had 10 points in the first half of play to lead the Sun.

Connecticut found more separation in the third, outscoring Dallas, 25-13, in the ten minutes out of the locker room to take a 68-46 lead into the fourth. The Wings wouldn’t get closer than 15 in the final quarter, but they outscored the Sun, 21-17, in the last ten minutes of action.

Maddy Siegrist and Tearia McCowan each tallied 16 points to lead the Wings in scoring in the effort. Connecticut held Dallas’s 2024 leading scorer, Arike Ogunbowale to just 11 points on the day, 15 points under her average entering the contest (26.2).

The Sun shot 44.8% (30-67), while holding the Wings to 37.7% (23-61) in the game. Dallas’s 67 points also mark a new season low. Connecticut’s bench accounted for 28 of the team’s 85 points, marking a new season-high for bench production.

Notables

  • The Sun outscored the Wings in the paint (44-40), on the fast break (14-7), in second chance opportunities (13-6) and from the bench (28-18).
  • Dallas went just 1-16 (6.2%) from beyond the arc in today’s game, marking a season low. The last time the Wings scored one or fewer three-point field goals was June 7, 2019.
  • The Sun held the Wings 15 points and seven rebounds under their season averages entering today’s contest (82.3 points and 36.5 rebounds).
  • DeWanna Bonner tallied a season-low eight points for the Sun in the win, marking the first time she was held to single-digits in scoring this season.
  • Veronica Burton recorded her first points of the 2024 season for Connecticut, fittingly against her former team of two seasons. She finished with two points, two assists and one steal in four minutes of play.
  • The Sun forced the Wings into 12 turnovers, scoring 11 points off their mistakes. The Wings forced nine Sun turnovers, tallying nine points off of their errors.
  • Both teams got to the free throw line in the game, with the Sun going 19-22 and the Wings going 20-24 on the day.

Since 2009, the Collinsville Press has been providing award-winning coverage of sports and news in the Farmington Valley and across Connecticut.

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