Mercury clinch home playoff game with 86-66 win over Sun

Sep 2, 2017, 05:21 am

PHOENIX -- Brittney Griner had 20 of her 31 points in the first half and the Phoenix Mercury clinched a home playoff game with an 86-66 win over the Connecticut Sun on Friday night.

The Sun (21-12) dropped into a third-place tie with the New York Liberty, each with one game remaining in the regular season. Connecticut visits the Los Angeles Sparks and New York travels to the Dallas Wings, both on Sunday. The Liberty hold the tiebreaker.

The Mercury (17-16) finish their season at home against Atlanta on Sunday and will stay in Phoenix. The Mercury can earn the fifth seed with a win and a loss by Washington.

Diana Taurasi added 15 points and Yvonne Turner scored 13. Phoenix pulled away with a 17-4 run to lead 38-21 late in the second quarter and went into the break still up by 17. Connecticut got the deficit no closer than 12 in the second half.

Alyssa Thomas had 19 points and Brionna Jones added 13 for the Sun.