Liberty's Ex Connecticut Stars Burn Sun at Mohegan

UNCASVILLE-Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart returned to The Constitution State on Tuesday night ... with a few amendments.

Now members of the New York Liberty, Jones and Stewart helped the Liberty cool down the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena to the tune of an 89-81 victory.

Not did the Liberty (10-3) end their hosts' four-game winning streak but they also took control of their destiny in the race for the spot in the Eastern Conference's spot in the Commissioner's Cup competition. Both teams have 6-3 records for the right to play the Las Vegas Aces in the in-season competition's championship final, but New York has the head-to-head tiebreaker combined with their win on June 27 in Brooklyn.

While Sun fans are well-used to seeing the University of Connecticut alumna Stewart rep other hoops markets, Tuesday marked the first time that Jones returned to Mohegan Sun as an opponent after a winter trade to New York ended a historic six-season stretch in orange. Jones put up a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double in her visit, as well as four blocks.

Stewart, on the other hand, made further WNBA history, becoming the 43rd player in WNBA history to earn at least 4,000 points in her career. Needing only 196 games to do it, Stewart also became the fastest to reach the landmark. She led the Liberty with 24 points on the night and one rebound short of matching Jones' double-double.

Connecticut (12-4) had its own brands of history on the other end: newly re-minted Eastern Conference Player of the Week Alyssa Thomas put up her third triple-double of the season to the tune of 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists while Tiffany Hayes joined the ranks of the 4,000-points scorers alongside Stewart. New York held Thomas and the rest of the Connecticut starters in relative check, with Thomas and DeWanna Bonner held to 8-of-29 from the field.

The Sun managed to eat away at a Liberty lead that reached as high as 16 and even took a late one-point lead before defensive specialist Kayla Thornton took the floor and kept Connecticut off the board for the final 3:39. Courtney Vandersloot gave the Liberty a permanent lead at the foul line before Betnijah Laney provided the dagger from deep to make it two possessions.

The road gets no easier for the Liberty moving forward as the middle leg of their three-game road trip has them facing the league-leading, aforementioned Aces in Sin City on Thursday night (10 p.m. ET, YES/Amazon Prime Video).

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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