Sun rout Sky 104-80, force Game 5 in semifinals series
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — With their season on the line, Alyssa Thomas and the Connecticut Sun took it right to Chicago and forced a decisive Game 5 in their WNBA semifinals series against the Sky.
DeWanna Bonner and Courtney Williams each scored 19 points to help the Sun rout the Sky 104-80 on Tuesday night. Thomas added 17 points for Connecticut, which will travel to the second-seeded Sky for the winner-take-all game on Thursday night.
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“Some games like tonight we get to feeling good, and the basket looks a little bigger. Tonight we just made shots,” Williams said. “Whatever team comes out and puts the ball in the basket is going to win.”
It’s the second consecutive playoff series for each team that has gone the distance. Both Chicago and Connecticut had to go on the road in the third game of their opening-round series and win to reach the semifinals because of the new playoff format that saw the higher seeded team host the first two games of that best-of-three set.
“It’s going to come down to who plays better for two hours,” Connecticut coach Curt Miller said. “We’ve won some tough road games. We have a team that grinds and has grit and that’s the kind of toughness you need to pull off a road win in a big game.”
Miller has been saying for the entire series that his team would have to make the game “messy” to beat the Sky. Getting into a high-scoring game wouldn’t benefit the Sun.
“So much for messy. That wasn’t messy,” Miller said. “A huge win and sending it back to Chicago for Game 5.
That wasn’t the case Tuesday, as the Sun raced to a 22-6 lead, scoring 10 of the first 12 points.
Thomas was a big reason why with seven points, four rebounds and two assists in the first five minutes.
