San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
RESILIENT SUN TO FACE 5TH WNBA ELIMINATION GAME
Four times Connecticut has faced elimination this year in the WNBA playoffs and four times the Sun have responded with a convincing win to stay alive.
The most convincing came Thursday, when Connecticut bounced back from two losses in Las Vegas to rout the Aces 105-76 at home in Game 3 of the Finals, putting six players in double figures and outscoring Vegas 64-26 in the paint. The margin of victory was the largest in a WNBA Finals elimination game.
“If you could encapsulate Connecticut, it’s physical, and very resilient,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “They’re physical, and they’re resilient, and they have a kind of a battle-type mentality.”
The Sun showed that in beating Dallas in a deciding third game in the first round, and again in winning two straight after falling behind 2-1 to Chicago in the semifinals, including a 24-point win in the first of the two elimination games in that series.
The team will have to win two more elimination games, including today at home, to take home the organization’s first WNBA title.
“I think it’s just the M.O. of our team,” said forward Jonquel Jones, who scored 20 points Thursday.
“When our backs are against the wall, we play really good basketball. And sometimes you wish that you didn’t put yourself in those positions. But that’s done now. All we can do is focus on the next game. And I just feel like in the playoffs, anytime our backs is going against the wall, you see us come out.”
Connecticut made several successful adjustments in Game 3, including assigning 6-foot-4 Dewanna Bonner to guard the red-hot Chelsea Gray. The Aces guard scored just 11 points after averaging 23.3 over her first eight games of the playoffs.
“Chelsea’s been killing it this playoff run but yeah, I did the best I can and stopped her and my teammates were right there,” Bonner said. “As long as they are right there. I’m gonna be right there with them.”
Bonner, who made just two of her 18 shots in the first two games of the series also erupted from that slump, scoring 18 points while going 8 of 15 from the field and buoying her teammates.
Soccer
Jack Grealish and Son Heung-min are two of the English Premier League’s most high-profile players and have been facing growing criticism for their failure to score this season. They silenced the doubters. Grealish struck after 55 seconds to set Manchester City on its way to a 3-0 win at Wolverhampton and first place in the standings. Son came off the bench and produced a hat trick to round off Tottenham’s 6-2 victory over lastplace Leicester. Defeat left manager Brendan Rodgers
under serious pressure after six straight league defeats. The wins left City and Tottenham tied for points in first and second place, respectively.
• Robert Lewandowski has shaken off his disappointing return to Bayern Munich by scoring twice to lead Barcelona to a 3-0 victory at home over 10-man Elche in the Spanish league.
Tennis
Botic van de Zandschulp and Tallon Griekspoor won their respective singles against Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul for the Netherlands to finish top of their Davis Cup Finals group. Van de Zandschulp settled the tie when he defeated Fritz 6-4, 7-6 (3) after Griekspoor opened with a 7-5, 7-6 (3) victory over Paul. Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock
restored some American pride by winning their doubles against Wesley Koolhof
and Matwe Middelkoop.
The United States and Netherlands were already assured of reaching the quarterfinals with two wins each in Group D. The Dutch next face the runner-up in Group C, Australia or Germany. The U.S. will play the Group A winner, most likely Italy. The Italians play today in Bologna against Sweden.
Locally
The San Diego Loyal scored three times in the second half to pull away from Phoenix Rising FC, 3-0, in USL Championship play at Torero Stadium.
• The University of San Diego women’s volleyball team (9-1), which is ranked eighth in the country, beat visiting San Diego State (2-9), 3-1.
• The 13th-ranked UC San Diego men’s water polo team outscored No. 7 Long Beach State (7-3) in the second half but it wasn’t enough as the visiting Tritons (3-6) fell by a score of 14-10.
• UCSD women’s volleyball (7-5) wrapped up the Thin Air Challenge with a 3-0 loss to host Denver (6-5).