Minnesota rallies to erase 15-point lead and beat Connecticut

Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey  (3) drives toward the basket against Minnesota’s Bridget Carleton (6) in Friday night’s WNBA game in Minneapolis. (Photo by Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)

For 35 minutes, the Connecticut Sun looked pretty good on Friday night against the Minnesota Lynx. When Tina Charles hit a jumper in the lane with 5:20 remaining, the Sun had a 15-point lead at the quiet Target Center in Minneapolis.

But the Lynx went to the WNBA finals a year ago and they have Naphessa Collier.

In the final five minutes, Minnesota outscored the Sun, 23-2 and scored on their final nine possessions of the game to rally and beat Connecticut, 76-70.

Minnesota (4-0) remains unbeaten while the Sun (0-3) dropped their third straight game.

Collier scored a game-high 33 points with 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. She kept the Lynx in the game in the first half as Connecticut sank nine 3-point shots in the first half to take a 56-49 lead at the half.

Marina Mabrey led the Sun with a season-high 22 points while rookie Saniya Rivers chipped in with 11 points. Robyn Parks scored 12 points, the most points she has scored in a WNBA game since she had 19 points playing for San Antonio in 2016. Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Minnesota didn’t let the Sun convert in the final five minutes. On their final 11 possessions of the game, Connecticut was 1-of-6 from the floor and had five turnovers.

“We’re just inexperienced right now,” Mabrey said. “Sometimes, when it gets down the stretch, we need to slow it down and execute. Defensively, we hurt ourselves. We fouled so early in the fourth quarter, we weren’t able to use our fouls at the end.”

The Sun had a 15-point lead, 68-53, when Collier hit a three-point shot with 4:55 remaining. That sparked a big 13-0 run that cut the lead to two on Collier’s jump shot with 2:25 remaining. Natasha Hiedeman had a nice drive to the basket in the run while Karlie Samuelson drained a three-point shot.

Collier sank two free throws with 1:38 remaining to tie the game at 68-68. The Lynx took their first lead of the game on a Hiedeman three-point shot with 1:04 left in the game, 71-68.

Mabrey stopped the bleeding with a basket off the glass with 42.6 seconds left to cut the lead to one, 71-70.

Mabrey said going back to plays that worked earlier in the game would be a key. “Go back to a set that has been working,” she said. “We didn’t do that which hurt us.”

But Hiedeman, the former Sun guard, drove to the basket with 31.3 seconds left to extend the lead to 74-70. She had seven of her 11 points in the final 3:45 of the game. Collier hit three free throws in the final 23 seconds to secure the win.

Connecticut had a fabulous first half, sinking nine of 21 shots from three-point range, led by Mabrey, who sank four. The Sun led by as many as 13 points.

Mabrey had 10 points with Peters scoring 10 and Nelson-Ododa scoring eight. The Sun had assists on 16 of 17 field goals, frequently finding the open shooter with plenty of passing.

“We played like we have to play,” Sun coach Rachid Meziane, referring to the first half. “There was a lot of ball movement, which created a lot of good, wide-open shots.”

The Sun continue their quest for the first win of the season on Sunday when they travel to Atlanta for a 3 p.m. contest against the Dream.

Minnesota 76, Connecticut 70
At Minneapolis
Connecticut (70) Nelson-Ododa 5-7 0-0 10, Charles 2-6 0-0 4, Allen 0-0 0-0 0, Mabrey 7-19 4-4 22, Rivers 5-11 0-0 11, Peters 5-8 0-0 12, Parks 0-0 0-0 0, Morrow 0-1 0-0 0, Hartley 1-6 2-2 5, Sheldon 2-8 0-0 6. Totals 27-6 6-6 70
Minnesota (76) Samuelson 1-2 4-4 7, Carleton 2-11 0-0 6, Smith 1-2 0-2 2, Collier 11-21 8-10 33, Williams 0-11 0-0 0, Shepard 5-8 3-4 13, Miller 1-3 0-0 2, Pili 0-0 2-2 2, Hiedeman 4-6 2-4 11. Totals 25-64 19-26
Connecticut (0-3)     19  26  11  14  — 70
Minnesota (4-0)        15  20  14  27 — 76
Three-point goals: Connecticut 10-30 (Charles 0-1, Mabrey 4-12, Rivers 1-5, Peters 2-5, Morrow 0-1, Hartley 1-3, Sheldon 2-3); Minnesota 7-24 (Samuelson 1-2, Carleton 2-11, Collier 3-4, Miller 0-1, Hiedeman 1-2); Att. 8,224