The Phoenix Mercury will look to improve on their perfect record against teams with losing records when they face the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday night at Uncasville, Conn.
The Mercury (8-4), which is 4-0 against below-.500 teams at the time they’ve played, will take on the Sun (2-9) after the latter dropped an 88-71 decision to the Indiana Fever on Tuesday night.
The contest got heated following incidents involving Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon and Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham.
Sheldon was ejected for drawing two technical fouls, and teammate Lindsay Allen was ejected for the fight that involved Cunningham with 46 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Cunningham was ejected for the flagrant-2 foul in which she yanked Sheldon to the floor as the latter attempted a layup.
“When you are winning a game by 17 points and you doing this stupid foul, this is just disrespectful,” Connecticut coach Rachid Meziane said. “I don’t know how Jacy and Lindsay (got) ejected from the game when they did nothing.”
Satou Sabally collected 22 points with nine rebounds and Alyssa Thomas added 14 points and 13 assists in the Mercury’s 76-70 win against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday. The Aces played without injured MVP A’ja Wilson (concussion protocol).
“I think we looked good, we got a W, and we’ll continue to be better every day,” said Sabally, who is averaging 20.6 points and 7.9 rebounds a game this season.
Kahleah Copper scored 11 points in her first game of the season after suffering a preseason knee injury. Sami Whitcomb came off the bench to contribute 18 points, helping Phoenix outscore the Aces’ reserves 28-14.
The Sun replaced their entire starting lineup from last season and lost head coach Stephanie White to the Fever.
Connecticut ranks last in the WNBA in average scoring (71.3 points a game) and rebounding (29.7).
“I thought this would happen,” veteran center Tina Charles said. “You have whole new players, a new coach, a new system. I knew there was going to be growing pains as a team and as coaches.”
–Field Level Media
