Sparks squander another late lead in loss to Sun

BOSTON — Sometimes the Sparks get overwhelmed early, and other times they find themselves in a competitive game before getting outkicked to the finish line.

Tuesday night was the latter.

DiJonai Carrington scored 19 points, and the Connecticut Sun used a late 14-0 run to defeat the Sparks, 69-61, on Tuesday in the first WNBA game to be played at the Boston Celtics’ TD Garden.

A franchise record sellout crowd of 19,125 saw the Sun storm back after they trailed 59-55 with less than four minutes to play.

Carrington scored twice in the lane sandwiched around a three-point play by Alyssa Thomas and in less than a minute Connecticut had gone back ahead 62-59 with the crowd roaring.

Tyasha Harris converted a three-point play that made it 69-56 with 1:40 to go. In just over two minutes the Storm had missed two shots and two free throws and had four turnovers.

Brionna Jones had 15 points and Harris 14 for the Sun (20-7), who overcame an 8-for-17 performance at the free-throw line. Thomas had nine points, eight assists and 16 rebounds.

Azura Stevens and rookie Rickea Jackson each had 14 points and six rebounds to pace the Sparks (6-22), who got nine points, 10 rebounds and three steals from All-Star Dearica Hamby. Kia Nurse added nine points and Li Yueru contributed eight points and seven rebounds.

The Sparks shot just 2 for 19 from 3-point range and turned the ball over 22 times as they lost their fifth game in a row and their 15th in the past 17 games. They are 2-12 on the road this season.

Sparks head coach Curt Miller was ejected with 1:22 left.

Carrington, Harris and Jones were all in double figures as the Sun erased an early deficit to take a 41-35 lead at the half.

Connecticut led by 11 in the third quarter but the Sparks cut the margin to 53-46 entering the fourth. The Sparks scored the first seven points to tie and turned that into a 13-2 run to open a 59-55 lead with 4:15 left.

UP NEXT

The Sparks play at Washington on Friday at 4:30 p.m. PT.