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Jones, Sun go down 2-0 to Aces
The Bahamian notches double-double in loss
Simba FrenchSend an emailSeptember 14, 2022 175 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
Bahamian professional basketball player Jonquel “JJ” Jones and the Connecticut Sun struggled against the Las Vegas Aces, as they fell 85-71 last night. The series is now 2-0 in the Aces’ favor in the best-of-five WNBA Final series, after the first two games at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jones, the 2021 WNBA Most Valuable Player, finished the game with a double-double, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in 30 minutes on the floor. She checked out of the game with 3:07 left in the game, as it was a foregone conclusion with the Aces up 80-62.
The Grand Bahama native was able to go 6-for-11 from the field. She hit the first shot from deep for her team in the third quarter to finish 1-for-3 in the game from that range. The center dished out three times and had nine defensive boards and two offensive boards.
Her fellow Grand Bahamian native, Indiana Pacers guard Chavano “Buddy” Hield, was in Vegas to support her.
It was not a good shooting night for the Sun, who shot 42.2 percent from the field and went 3-for-14 from deep. The Aces shot the ball well, making 51.6 percent of their shots from the field.
With the loss, the Sun will now look to be the first team in league history to come back from a 2-0 deficit in the WNBA Finals. Those teams are 0-15 when down 2-0 in a best-of-five series.
The Aces, who are one win away from the winning the championship, went up 80-60 at the 4:28 mark in the fourth quarter for their largest lead of the game.
The start of the third quarter was a little slow for the Sun, as the Aces scored the first four points in that quarter. The Sun picked up its offense as they went on a 9-0 run to cut the score down to 49-46, with 7:11 left in that quarter. That was the only offensive spark for the Sun, as the Aces went on to win that quarter 23-17, which turned out to be the game-changing period.
Jones got started early in this matchup and made her first field goal in the first minute of the game, to put the Sun up 4-2. It was a stark difference from game one, when Jones did not score or attempt a single shot and went scoreless in the first period. At the end of the first period, the Aces led 23-15.
Midway through the second quarter, the Sun went bigger against the Aces’ zone defense. They had all three of their bigs – Jones, Brionna Jones and DeWanna Bonner – on the floor. They were able to go on a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to six points at 37-43, a run that was snapped when Wilson made a late layup in the second quarter to put the Aces up 45-37 heading into the half.
Jones led the Sun with 11 points in the first half, after scoring seven points in the second quarter.
The Aces’ three-headed monster – 2022 MVP A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum – each scored 20 or more points in the game. Wilson had a game-high 26 points, while Gray and Plum had 21 and 20 points respectively.
The series now swings to the East Coast, as the Sun look to start the back-end sweep when they play the hosts in a must-win game three at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. That game gets underway tomorrow at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.