Mercury blows 22-point lead, rallies for win over Sun in OT

Updated: Sep 10, 2020, 05:44 am

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Skylar Diggins-Smith scored a season-high 33 points, including a tying 35-footer at the end of regulation, Diana Taurasi added 28, and the Phoenix Mercury gave up a 22-point lead before beating the Connecticut Sun 100-95 in overtime on Wednesday night.

Brianna Turner had 10 points, a career-high 21 rebounds, five assists and four blocks for Phoenix (13-8). The Mercury have won seven of their last eight games to pull within a half-game of the fourth-place Minnesota Lynx.

Taurasi hit a 3-pointer -- her fifth of the game -- with 1:46 to play to break a 91-all tie and give the Mercury the lead for good. Diggins-Smith added a jumper 55 seconds later and Taurasi made two free throws to cap a 7-1 spurt that made it 98-92 with 15.4 seconds to go.

DeWanna Bonner had 32 points and 10 rebounds and Alyssa Thomas added 18 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and three steals for Connecticut (10-11).

Second in the NBA in offensive rebounds at 9.7 per game, the Sun had a season-high 19 against Phoenix, including one by Thomas with 18.5 seconds left in regulation and the game tied at 84-all. But after Connecticut called a timeout, Kaila Charles threw the in-bound pass directly to the Mercury's Shey Peddy and Diggins-Smith made a layup.

Bonner answered with a 3-pointer and then forced Taurasi out of bounds before hitting two free throws to make it 89-86 with 3.4 seconds to go. Diggins-Smith hit a runner to force OT.

The Sun beat Phoenix 85-70 on Monday to snap its six-game win streak.

Phoenix led 40-18 midway through the second quarter but the Sun used a 33-10 run to take a three point lead into the fourth.