By RENALDO DORSETT
Tribune Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
Jonquel Jones made local basketball history once again and became the first Bahamian player to advance to the WNBA Finals.
Jones and the Connecticut Sun closed out the Los Angeles Sparks with a 78-56 win last night in Long Beach, California.
With the win, the Sun completed a 3-0 sweep in the WNBA best-of-five series to advance to the finals.
Jones finished with eight rebounds, four blocked shots (both game highs), four assists and four points. She struggled from the field early on and was limited to just two points and one rebound in the first half. Her only field goal of the half was a jumper at the 4:06 mark to give the Sun a 9-4 lead. They led 14-11 at the end of the first and took a 40-32 lead at the half.
The Sun opened the third quarter on a 15-5 run and gained control of the game for good.
A 63-44 lead headed into the fourth ballooned to as much as 26 in the rout.
The Sun took game one of the series 84-75. Jones finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in the first playoff win of her WNBA career. In game two, she posted a double double and playoff career high scoring outburst with 27 points and 13 rebounds in the Suns’ 94-68 win.
The Sun will play a best-of-five series in the WNBA Finals. The series is a 2-2-1 format. If the Sun faces the Washington Mystics, the Sun will host games three and four (if necessary). The Mystics would host games one, two and five (if necessary). If the Sun face the Las Vegas Aces, the Sun will host games one, two and five (if necessary). The Aces would host games three and four (if necessary).
Connecticut finished 23-11 in the regular season but several WNBA pundits did not consider them as a legitimate WNBA title contender because of a perceived lack of superstars.
Connecticut has used the predictions of pundits as motivation for the postseason, making promos using the Tweets of ‘‘experts’’ saying they don’t have a superstar and picking against them in the series. The team sold t-shirts in the arena Tuesday that read DisrespeCT, with the CT highlighted.
The rivalry between the Sun and the Sparks intensified after Connecticut made arguably the biggest transaction of the WNBA offseason which led to an increased role for Jones.
With Jones’ emergence as an MVP candidate, the Sun traded former No.1 overall pick and All-Star forward Chiney Ogwumike to the Sparks for a 2020 first-round pick.
When Ogumike was injured for the entire 2017 season, Jones posted a breakout season, but was relegated to a reserve role once she returned to the floor in the 2018 season.
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