UNCASVILLE — The Connecticut Sun improved to 3-0 against the Phoenix Mercury this season with a 96-69 rout on Sunday, their final game at Mohegan Sun Arena before the WNBA’s three-week break for the Paris Olympics.
Rachel Banham powered the victory over Phoenix with her best performance in a Sun jersey, setting a new career-high with eight made 3-pointers on 11 attempts. Banham ended with a season-high 24 points, all coming from beyond the arc, in 23 minutes on the floor. Banham’s eight threes were the most by a bench player in WNBA history, and her 24 points were the most ever scored without a two-point or free-throw attempt.
“I just feel like I’ve been waiting for this. (The team) knows I’ve been frustrated with not hitting my shots, but it feels good. I’m confident, I’m ready, I stay in the gym, so I knew my time was coming,” Banham said. “I wish it was sooner, but it just felt really good to kind of feel like myself and really get in rhythm, and get to stay out there … They just kept feeding me and that just gave me more confidence.”
It was a game of runs for both teams early with seven lead changes before halftime, and Connecticut fell behind by as many as nine points in the first quarter. DeWanna Bonner’s hot hand fueled the comeback with five unanswered points as the Sun went on a 7-0 run to end the first quarter and tie the game 20-20. The six-time All-Star had nine points in the opening quarter plus a team-leading three rebounds and a steal, and she finished with 17 points shooting 8-for-15 from the field.
Kahleah Copper was dominant for the Mercury in the first half with a game-high 14 points shooting 7-for-13 from the field. But the second-highest scorer in the league was limited from range going 0-for-2 on 3-pointers in the first half, and she also gave up three turnovers. Copper finished with a single made three and a career-worst seven turnovers.
“I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that she had 10 (in the first quarter) — not that I couldn’t feel myself getting cooked, but I looked at he score board and was like alright, it’s time to lock in,” DiJonai Carrington, Copper’s primary guard, said. “I take that stuff personally as a person who cares about defense and considered themselves a defensive player … I don’t look at my stats, (because) that’s going to come. I look at who I’m guarding and what they’re doing.”
Banham and Brionna Jones took the reigns of the Sun’s offense in the second quarter. Banham checked in off the bench and scored six points in her first three minute on the court off a pair of 3-pointers. Xhe added two more before halftime to surpass her season-high three makes from beyond the arc, and she led the Sun with 12 points after the second quarter. Jones also put up 12 first-half points despite a difficult matchup with Phoenix’s Olympian center Brittney Griner.
The Sun quickly opened up a double-digit lead in the second half with a 10-2 run to start the third quarter. Carrington, despite a poor shooting performance from the field, went 5-for-8 at the free throw line and recorded a career-high six offensive rebounds. She finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for her first WNBA double-double. Carrington also lived up to her reputation as one of the top perimeter defenders in the league this year, helping hold Phoenix well below their season average shooting 28% beyond the arc. The Mercury have shot below 30% on 3-pointers in all three matchups with the Sun this season.
“DiJonai is a prime example … of someone who, when the opportunity is there for them, they take full advantage of it. They just take it and don’t give it up,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “She’s been incredibly consistent for us all season long on the defensive end of the floor. I think over the last three or four weeks she’s finally found a comfort zone in her offensive game as well … To me, she’s the lead frontrunner for Most Improved Player, and I think she’s a frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year, but also, she’s still just scratching the surface in my mind.”
Connecticut held Phoenix scoreless for nearly five minutes in the third until Copper ended the drought by hitting her first 3-pointer with under two minutes to go in the quarter. But Rachel Banham sank a fifth 3-pointer to open the fourth, kicking off another 9-2 run for the Sun. Copper finished as the Mercury’s leading scorer with 17 points, but she was held to just three in the second half.
“This was probably the most complete game we’ve played all season long, on both ends of the floor,” White said. “We got production from multiple people, and just across the board. I thought we were balanced. Our attention to detail was high. We didn’t like their field goal percentage in the first half,and made some adjustments in the second half and executed those. I’m just really, really proud of our group.”
