Sun survive fourth quarter surge from Fever to secure first win of season

Connecticut’s Saniya Rivers (22) passes the ball in Friday night’s WNBA game in Indianapolis. Rivers finished with a career-high six assists as the Sun won their first game of the season. (Photo by Pepper Robinson/NBAE via Getty Images)

A week ago, the Connecticut Sun had a 15-point lead with 5:20 remaining against the Minnesota Lynx only to see the host Lynx outscore the Sun 23-2 and earn the victory.

On Friday night, the winless Sun had a 15-point lead over the host Indiana Fever with 8:47 remaining in the game only to see the Fever use a 19-2 run to take the lead with 2:45 left in the game.

Would the Sun collapse again? No.

Bria Hartley and Saniya Rivers hit two big three-point shots and Marina Mabrey kit a key pullup jumper with 1:15 as Connecticut earned their first win of the WNBA season with a 85-83 win over the sliding Fever.

The Sun (1-5) sank a season-high 10 three-point shots, led by Mabrey with four. Mabrey scored a game-high 26 points, including 13 points in the third quarter along while 36-year-old Tina Charles scored 18 points, including 15 in the first half. Rivers added a career-high 12 for the Sun, along with a career-high six assists and three 3-point shots.

Indiana, who played without rookie of the year Caitlyn Clark, out with a quad injury, was led by Aliyah Boston with 17 points. DeWanna Bonner, the former Sun star, scored 13 points including three 3-point shots in the fourth quarter as she tried to carry her team over the finish line.

Indiana (2-4) has lost three in a row.

With the victory, the Sun became just the second WNBA franchise with 500 victories. The franchise won 60 games in Orlando for three seasons as the Miracle and has won 440 in Connecticut. Los Angeles (532 wins) was the first WNBA franchise with 500 wins.

Sun head coach Rachid Meziane also picked up his first WNBA win as a head coach.

“We stayed together as a team this time,” Mabrey said. “This is something we’ve been talking about at practice, at film (sessions), all of the time. It was hard conversations that we had to have. When you have those conversations, it helps bring the team together.”

Indiana had cut the lead to nine points when Bria Hartley hit a long three-point shot as the shot clock was expiring.

Hartley came up with a steal and dished the ball to Haley Peters, who was driving to the basket, scored and was fouled. Peters sank the free throw to extend the lead to 15, 74-59 with 8:47 remaining.

But the Fever began making shots and hitting baskets. Boston scored in the lane, Lexie Hull hit a three-pointer off a Boston assist, Bonner drained two 3-point shots and Boston scored in the lane over Charles with 3:15 remaining to give the Fever a 75-74 lead and cap off a 16-0 run.

In that span, the Sun went 0-for-3 from the floor and had six turnovers.

Rivers stopped the Indiana run by driving to the basket, getting fouled and hitting two free throws with 3:02 remaining to give the Sun a 76-75 lead.

Bonner sank a three-pointer with 2:45 remaining to put the Fever ahead, 78-76 but Hartley responded with a three-pointer of her own. After Mabrey forced a Fever turnover, it was Rivers with a three-point shot and the Sun led, 82-78 with 1:47 remaining.

Hall sank a three-pointer for the Fever with 1:33 remaining but Mabrey responded with a jumper in the lane to extend Connecticut’s lead to 84-81 with 1:15 left.

A shot in the lane from Kelsey Mitchell eight 8 seconds left cut the Sun lead to one, 84-83. Rivers sank one of two free throws with 5.8 seconds remaining. Charles had tough defense on Mitchell, whose shot from the deep corner bounced off the rim in the final seconds as the Sun won to avoid their worst start in franchise history.

Connecticut also dropped the first five games of the 2020 season.

“When you have a team that doesn’t have a lot of experience and a new coach, there will be some real growing pains,” Mabrey said. “It’s tough to work through.”

Indiana took a 12-4 lead early in the game but the Sun rallied behind Charles in the first half. A 10-0 run got the Sun right back into the contest. Boston was tough to stop throughout the game for the Fever. Boston hit her first seven shots from the floor and finished 8-of-10 from the floor,

The Sun shot a season-high 51.7% (31/60) from the floor, while holding the Fever to 49.2% (29/59) shooting from the field in the game. Connecticut forced 15 Indiana turnovers, resulting in 30 Sun points.

Connecticut’s Olivia Nelson-Ododa added eight points, a team-high nine rebounds, one steal and one block. Sun teammate Haley Peters added nine points, two rebounds and two steals in 18 minutes off the bench. Both teams grabbed 25 rebounds and dished out 19 assists.

The Sun return to action on Sunday when they travel to Brooklyn to face the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty at 3 p.m.

Connecticut 85, Indiana 83
At Indiana
Connecticut (85) Nelson Ododa 2-8 4-4 8, Charles 7-16 3-4 18, Harley 2-5 0-0 6, Mabrey 10-17 2-2 26, Rivers 3-6 3-4 12, Peters 4-4 1-1 9, Parks 0-0 0-0 0, Morrow 1-1 0-0 2, Sheldon 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 31-60 13-15
Indiana (83) Howard 4-9 1-2 9, Boston 8-10 1-2 17, Colson 0-0 0-0 0, Mitchell 4-15 5-6 13, Hull 5-8 0-0 12, Bonner 4-7 2-2 13, Dantas 3-5 2-2 9, Turner 0-0 0-0 0, Cunningham 1-5 7-7 10. Totals 29-59 18-21
Connecticut (1-5)        21  22  25  17 —  85
Indiana (2-4)               23  16  20  24  — 83
Three-point goals: Connecticut 10-20 (Charles 1-1, Hartley 2-4, Mabrey 4-9, Rivers 3-5, Sheldon 0-1); Indiana 7-17 (Howard 0-1, Mitchell 0-4, Hull 2-2, Bonner 3-5, Dantas 1-3, Cunningham 1-3)