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Roman Augustoviz spends Minnesota's winters covering college hockey, specifically the Gophers, and other University of Minnesota sports. During the summer, he writes about the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, with a dose of U sports sprinkled in. Follow him on Twitter @RomanStrib.
Coach says his Sun had meltdown in fourth quarter against Lynx
Posted by: Roman Augustoviz under Lynx Updated: June 2, 2012 - 1:56 AM
Connecticut coach Mike Thibault was not happy with the way the Sun played in the fourth quarter in its 85-72 loss to the Lynx at home on Friday night.
“Well, 30-16 fourth quarter kind of says it all," he said, according to a Sun's news release. "We had a chance to take control of the game at the end of the third. Instead, we had a little bit of a meltdown. They stepped it up and we didn’t answer it. We had turnovers, we had missed block outs, we shot the ball poorly…all the things you need to do well to win a game against a team like that in the fourth quarter, we didn’t do.”
The Lynx are now 6-0, with three wins at home, three on the road. The Sun fall to 3-1.
“We can go around the room and we all take responsibility for it, coaches, players, everybody," Thibault said. "I just thought we missed a golden opportunity for a lot of reasons. We didn’t shoot the ball well – our perimeter players, particularly."
The Sun were an abysmal two for 19 on three-pointers, the Lynx four for 11.
"We didn’t get Tina [Charles] enough shots I don’t think down the stretch," Thibault said. "You have to credit Minnesota a little bit for that because they front and backed her a little bit and made it tough to get it in. But we need to be a little more patient about it too. I just thought what we saw in the fourth quarter was a difference in the maturity level of the two teams right now. We’re close but we’re not quite there yet.”
Charles, the Sun's 6-4 center, did not take a shot in the fourth quarter and was scoreless. She finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds, but had no points and one rebound in the last 1-1/2 quarters.
Thibabult said the Lynx don't have any weaknesses, "but I felt like if we played our best basketball. We can compete with them. And we obviously did for long stretches.
"I’m not quite sure how we were in the game a couple of times, but we were scrapping and coming up with loose balls and forcing them to turn it over and we got more shot attempts than they did because of the turnover difference and the offensive rebounds. But you have to make them (shots) too."
The Sun shot 32.5 percent from the field, the Lynx 50 percent.
"We did a lot of things to give ourselves and opportunity and then we gave it right back," Thibault said. "How many times did the ball get picked up off the floor and they laid it in at the end of the shot clock when the ball got kicked around and they have someone standing under the basket?
"We made two or three cross-court passes that (Seimone) Augustus picks off and they go the other way. Lindsay (Whalen) gets one and they go the other way. Those are big plays. Those turn around games and that’s what happened to us.”
Sun guard Renee Montgomery said the loss was not a moral victory for her team. "We’re not here for that," said the former Lynx, who scored 16 points off the bench. "They did win last year but we’re looking to win this year and when you do play one of the top teams you obviously want to beat them, but we didn’t look to stay close with them in a game. We looked to win and when you lose it’s a disappointment, but you can’t hang on it long.”
Not long at all. The Sun play Washington at home on Sunday afternoon.
“When it came down to it, we didn’t get any rebounds," Charles said. "I wasn’t boxing out on key plays. We can’t be doing that if we want to be the team we want to be toward the end of the season.”
Charles expected Rebekkah Brunson of the Lynx to be tough on the boards, which she was with 13 rebounds. “Everybody knows about her, that’s her DNA," Charles said of Brunson. "She’s going to keep going after the boards. You just know she’s going to rebound.”
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