by RENALDO DORSETT
With frustration mounting for her Connecticut Sun and their struggling 2-10 start to the WNBA season, Jonquel Jones produced her best game of the season en route to a win.
Jones finished with 14 points and nine rebounds in the Sun’s 93-90 come from behind win over the San Antonio Stars.
She finished with 10 of her career high 14 in the final quarter and tied her career high for rebounds.
The Sun, ranked 11th in the AP WNBA Power Poll, trailed by seven after three quarters, but opened the fourth with a 20-4 run to take an 86-77 lead with 3:25 to play. Connecticut hit four 3-pointers during that stretch, including two by Jones, as San Antonio missed eight of its first nine field-goal attempts in the quarter.
The Sun (3-10) have won five straight against the Stars.
On the season, she is averaging 3.8 points, three rebounds and one block in 10.2 minutes per game.
Alex Bentley scored 29 points, Jasmine Thomas had 11 points, a career-high 10 assists and nine boards for the Sun. Chiney Ogwumike tied a season high with 12 points and Kelly Faris scored 10.
The Sun are the only team not to have made the playoffs in the last three years but Jones said the fans remain loyal.
“Win or lose they’re here. Win or lose they support us. We could never fully show them how appreciative we are except for winning games and right now we’re not doing that but we really appreciate them. I have watched a lot of games in a lot of different places,” he said.
Following the win over the Stars, the Sun will go on a four-game road trip to Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Dallas before coming back to play Minnesota. The remainder of the schedule is strong against several playoff teams.
“We came in here trying to change a culture and we weren’t going to talk about wins and losses,” Sun head coach Curt Miller said in an interview with a Norwich Bulletin, “With a young team, the record is, sometimes defeating, and morale — you have to keep trying to pump them up. We don’t have the locker room quite where we want it to be, but you can see growth in that area.”