Marina Mabrey made it clear why the Connecticut Sun traded for her during the Olympic break with a breakout performance in her new team’s 109-91 rout of the Dallas Wings on Friday in Arlington, Texas.
Connecticut was without top perimeter defender DiJonai Carrington (personal reasons) and lead bench contributor Tiffany Mitchell (illness) against the Wings, and Mabrey was one of three players were making their debuts in Sun jerseys. But Mabrey, who played three seasons in Dallas before her stint with the Chicago Sky, didn’t miss a beat against her former team. She finished with 17 points, four rebounds and three assists, shooting a team-best 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
“She knows how to play,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “She moves really well with and without the ball. She makes the right read and the right plays. She knocks down shots … and she’s versatile, so we can play her at multiple positions. I think she fits really well with our core group just in terms of understanding our actions, being effective in our actions and making the right plays.”
Mabrey was thrust into the starting lineup in place of Carrington and logged 10 points in the first quarter alone, also adding three rebounds and two assists. She knocked down a pair of 3-pointers that both broke tie scores to give Connecticut the lead, including its first of the game. The connection was instant with superstar Alyssa Thomas, who dished five assists — two to Mabrey — and shot 3-for-4 for six points in the opening quarter.
“(Thomas) is such a dynamic player, so playing off of her is really easy just like moving around, and she sees everything,” Mabrey said. “She’s always putting other people before her and trying to make other people better before herself. She kind of just makes you want to keep working harder and doing stuff for the team, because that’s what she does. She sets the tone.”
Mabrey sank her third 3-pointer of the game at the halftime buzzer to improve to 5-for-9 from the field for 13 points. But while Mabrey led the outside shooting, Connecticut hit 54.5% from beyond the arc as a team in the first half with four different players recording makes. DeWanna Bonner added an impressive effort getting to the free throw line with 13 points shooting 8-for-10 on free throws.
The shorthanded Sun roster struck a balanced attack against Dallas with seven different players recording at least three points before halftime. The Wings were led by Arike Ogunbowale with 10 first-half points, but Veronica Burton played significant minutes as the Dallas star’s primary guard and helped limit the sharpshooter to 3-for-8 from the field in the first half. Burton also recorded the Sun’s only block of the half.
Bonner got hot in the third quarter shooting 5-for-6 from the field, powering Connecticut to open up a 21-point lead entering the fourth. The Sun didn’t miss a field goal attempt in the third for nearly eight minutes, and four players finished the quarter with double-digit points. Bonner had a new season-high in points by the end of the third quarter, and she finished with 29 after hitting her fourth 3-pointer with under five minutes to play. She also added four assists, three rebounds and two steals.
“A lot of stuff that we’ve typically run for DB we’re running for Marina as well, so DB gets to rest a little bit more offensively and I think that certainly helps,” White said. “She was shooting the ball incredibly well today at shoot-around and pregame, so I knew she felt really good. For somebody like DB, 15 years in the league, getting som rest over the break is really impactful. You can come back and be fresh, and she got her rhythm and timing back pretty quickly.”
Thomas looked as comfortable as ever returning from winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Paris Olympics, playing 31 minutes and coming just shy of a triple-double. The five-time All-Star logged 12 points, eight rebounds and 14 assists plus two steals, and she shot 6-for-9 from the field.
Connecticut finished shooting 57.6% from the field and 55% from 3-point range, both season-highs by a significant margin. It was also the Sun’s first 100-point game of the year with eight different scorers and five in double figures. Rookie Celeste Taylor, who signed a seven-day contract with Connecticut barely 12 hours before the game, played just eight minutes and recorded her first points in a Sun jersey on a long jumper at the end of the third quarter. Olivia Nelson-Ododa was questionable entering the game with a right foot injury but went 4-for-5 for 10 points to lead the bench.
