The Minnesota Lynx began a three-game road trip on Sunday afternoon with a tough test against one of the top teams in the WNBA this season.
The Lynx were able to handle that challenge well to kick off the road trip on the right foot, taking down the Connecticut Sun 74-71 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
With the win, Minnesota improves to 8-6 on the year, having won two straight games and four of its last five contests. The Lynx also were able to hand the Sun (9-5) their first home loss of the 2019 season, extending Connecticut’s losing streak to four straight games.
In the first quarter, Minnesota was able to jump out to a nice lead midway through the opening frame, leading by as many as seven points with just under four minutes left. Connecticut finished the quarter on a 6-0 run to narrow that lead down to 21-20 going into the second.
To finish off the first half of play on Sunday, the Lynx and Sun continued to stay neck-and-neck in a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes. Minnesota, which carried a 44-43 lead into halftime, finished strong offensively, shooting 60 percent from the field while holding Connecticut to shooting 42.9 percent.
In that first half of action, the trio of Sylvia Fowles, Odyssey Sims and Napheesa Collier had it going early on, combining to score 35 of Minnesota’s 44 first-half points. Fowles had 14 of her 18 points in the first two quarters, followed by Sims’ 11 points and seven assists and Collier’s 10 points.
Out of halftime, the Sun were able to cool off the Lynx to outscore Minnesota 15-10 in the frame and take a 58-54 lead into the fourth quarter. After shooting 60 percent in the opening half, the Lynx wrapped up the third quarter shooting 47.9 percent.
In the final quarter, Minnesota jumped out to a 10-2 lead over the course of the first five minutes of the quarter to retake the lead and not look back. The Lynx ended up outscoring the Sun 20-13 in the final 10 minutes to come back and grab the road win.
Sims ended up leading the way in the end for Minnesota, finishing with a nice all-around game of 21 points, eight assists and four rebounds. Her 20-point outburst is her fifth such performance in the last seven games, and she was the third Lynx player in franchise history to have eight or more assists in three straight games.
Behind Sims, Fowles tallied a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds, with Danielle Robinson finishing with 13 points, four assists and four rebounds and Collier ending up with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists for Minnesota, which shot 45.5 percent from the field in the game.
Jasmine Thomas had 16 points, five rebounds and five assists and Alyssa Thomas added 11 points and nine rebounds to lead Connecticut, which was held to just 39.7 percent shooting in the loss.
The Lynx did a really nice job on defending Jonquel Jones, who came into the game in the top 10 in the league in scoring. Jones finished with just five points and seven rebounds, shooting 2 of 10 from the field.
Minnesota will continue on in its three-game road trip when it travels Chicago to take on the Chicago Sky at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Wintrust Arena.
