Mohegan Sun Arena’s WNBA game on Tuesday featuring the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun was a star-studded affair with five players named to the 2023 midseason WNBA classic and two former league MVPs.
New York features a trio of championship-caliber players signed in the offseason, including former UConn star Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones. They joined a team featuring Sabrina Ionescu and 2022 Dawn Staley Leadership Award winner Betnijah Laney.
But Connecticut so far has been the surprise team of the league. And the Sun faithful continue to support the team despite the loss of fan favorites during the offseason and to injury. The Sun most recently announced center Brionna Jones underwent surgery for a season-ending leg injury.
One of those fan favorites is Jonquel Jones, who was born in the Bahamas and played collegiate basketball for George Washington of the Atlantic 10.
Jones said she had mixed feelings in her return to play a regular-season game at Mohegan Sun Arena, where she made her WNBA debut and played six seasons.
“It feels strange,” she said in a postgame news conference. “The love that I get from everybody here … it always warms my heart and makes me feel good.”
She spent most of the pregame warmup hour out on the court, working on all aspects of her game. The 2021 league MVP with the Sun was given a warm welcome in a video tribute prior to tipoff.
Jones earned that warm welcome. She and 2023 All-Star DeWanna Bonner anchored a team that made it to the WNBA finals last year. The Sun placed fifth in the WNBA in attendance in 2022.
And the hometown team and its raucous Tuesday evening crowd of 7,344 never gave up, mounting comeback after comeback behind the play of Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, who was inexplicably left off the list of starters for the All-Star game. She was named to the…
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