Sky falls short at Connecticut

UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Katie Douglas scored 18 points, Asjha Jones had 16 points and 9 rebounds, and the Connecticut Sun beat the Chicago Sky 74-56 on Tuesday night.

Evanthia Maltsi added 13 points for Connecticut, and Lindsay Whalen had 10. It was the third consecutive victory for the Sun, which went 9-2 in July.

"I'm just really impressed with how (the Sun) is playing right now," Sky coach Bo Overton said. "From the get-go, they played a lot harder than we did. They got to all the loose balls and all the long rebounds. When teams do that to us, we've got problems."

Jia Perkins scored 17 points for the Sky (12-15), which had won four of five. Stacey Dales added 10 for the visitors.

Candice Dupree, who came in averaging almost 18 points for the Sky, was held to just 4 points on 1-of-6 shooting by Jones, who shadowed her throughout the game.

The Sun jumped to a 24-14 lead after one quarter and stretched that to 33-16 early in the second. The Sky then went on an 11-0 run to get back into it.

Dupree's first points came on a pair of free throws with 2:41 left in the half, cutting the deficit to 35-31. She made her only field goal on a fastbreak a minute later.

The Sun led 41-35 at the half and opened the second with an 11-2 run, led by Jones' 6 points. The Sun was ahead 64-46 after three and coasted from there.

The Sky will host the first-place Detroit Shock (21-6) on Friday (7:30 p.m., Channel 11). The Shock defeated San Antonio 84-79 Tuesday night in a matchup of conference leaders.

"We feel good about the way we played them the last time," Overton said. "We're playing them at home. We just need to have a little more urgency than we did tonight, and hopefully we'll have that on Friday."