Sylvia Fowles had 24 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, Layshia Clarendon had 12 points in their debut with Minnesota and the Lynx rallied to beat the Connecticut Sun 79-74 in overtime Sunday night.
Clarendon, who signed with Minnesota earlier in the day, hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 66 seconds remaining to give the Lynx (1-4) the lead for good. The 30-year-old guard in their ninth WNBA season was waived last week by the New York Liberty.
Jonquel Jones led Connecticut (6-2) with 22 points and Jasmine Thomas added 14 points and five assists.
Clarendon hit a 30-footer just after the buzzer that would have won the game in regulation. Kayla McBride missed a 3-point shot but Fowles grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it out to McBride who missed another 3 but Crystal Dangerfield got another offensive board and found Damiris Dantas for a 3-pointer that cut Minnesota’s deficit to 63-61 with 37.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Bonner missed a jumper 25 seconds later and Dangerfield grabbed the rebound and raced to the right elbow where she made a pull-up jumper with 2.9 seconds left to force overtime.
SPARKS 82, SKY 79, OT
CHICAGO (AP) – Nneka Ogwumike had 21 points and nine rebounds and the Sparks rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat the Sky.
Erica Wheeler had 17 points, seven assists and three steals and Amanda Zahui B. added 17 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for the Sparks. Nia Coffey had a season-high 15 points.
Wheeler and Ogwumike made back-to-back layups before Coffey hit a 3-pointer to cap a 7-0 spurt that gave the Sparks the lead for good at 80-75 with 2:03 left. The Sky went 0 for 4 from the field with three turnovers over the final 92 seconds.
Courtney Vandersloot had a career-high 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Chicago (2-4). The Sky have lost four in a row, including a 76-61 defeat to the Sparks on Friday, after back-to-back wins to open the season.
ACES 101, FEVER 78
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Dearica Hamby led five Las Vegas players scoring in double figures with 22 points, Liz Cambage added 13 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks and the Aces beat the Fever.
Riquna Williams finished with 16 points, making 4 of 5 from 3-pointers. A’ja Wilson scored 15 and Jackie Young added 12 points and three steals for Las Vegas (5-2).
The Aces also beat Indiana 113-77 on Friday.
Wilson had eight points and Hamby added seven in a 21-2 run that made it 24-10 late in the first quarter and the Aces led by double figures the rest of the way. Indiana made 1 of 12 from the field and committed three turnovers during that decisive stretch.
Victoria Vivians led the Fever (1-7) with a season-high 17 points.