Lynx improve to 5-0 with impressive victory at Connecticut

UNCASVILLE, CONN. – After a couple of narrow victories in their previous two games, the Lynx had little trouble Friday — even with Maya Moore having an off night.

Center Sylvia Fowles had 20 points and nine rebounds, Rebekkah Brunson and reserve Renee Montgomery each added 11 points and the Lynx improved to 5-0 with an 82-68 victory over the Connecticut Sun at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

"[Fowles] didn't finish that great," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said, "but she was pretty efficient to score 20 points in 21 minutes. She made some free throws and got some offensive boards."

Said Sun coach Curt Miller about Fowles: "She's a dominant presence that you can play through. We tried to tweak some things from the last time, but she established her presence really early."

Moore, the former University of Connecticut star, scored only seven points, shooting 1-for-9 from the floor, although she did have a game-high 11 rebounds.

She was averaging 15 points this season and 21 in her past four games vs. the Sun.

Seimone Augustus (4-for-13) also struggled for the Lynx but had nine points as did guard Lindsay Whalen, who made all three of her shots.

The Lynx — who won their previous two games by two points, including an 80-78 victory over the Sun on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center — led 17-10 after one quarter, 42-26 at halftime and 64-41 after three quarters.

Fowles insisted it wasn't an easy victory, though.

"We knew we had a lot of things we need to improve on from the first game," she said. "Connecticut is a very scrappy team. They have fast guards, and they have people crash the boards from all positions.

"We wanted to utilize a few things, keeping our rebounding up and limiting our turnovers which I think we did well."

Lynetta Kizer led the Sun (0-4) with 12 points.

Rachel Banham, the former Gophers standout, scored seven points in 12 minutes for the Sun. Those were her first points of the season.

The Lynx shot only slightly better than the Sun, 40.9 percent to 39.1, but they outrebounded the home team 43-27.

The Lynx also had a 22-13 edge in free throws made.

Minnesota has won 22 consecutive games in May dating to 2012.