Sophie Cunningham ejected in Mercury’s loss to Minnesota Lynx

With their frustrations boiling over because of the officiating, the Phoenix Mercury couldn’t get a handle on the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday at Footprint Center. 

And Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever tightened the playoff race with an upset victory against Connecticut.

The Mercury’s 89-76 loss to the Lynx included three technical fouls, including two that caused Sophie Cunningham to be ejected from the game. 

Cunningham earned two technical fouls within six seconds of each other in the final three minutes. Cunningham received her second after taunting the Lynx following her layup and foul from Napheesa Collier, who also received a technical foul at 3:28.

Cunningham finished with 16 points and six rebounds, sharing the team lead in scoring with Diana Taurasi. 

Head coach Nate Tibbetts received a technical foul with 1:43 remaining in the third quarter. 

Minnesota’s Kayla McBride led all scorers with 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting.  

The Mercury’s defense again had trouble against the Lynx in the second half, giving up a 10-0 run during the third quarter.

McBride scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting during that span, knocking down two 3s, and helped the Lynx gain a 20-point lead. McBride finished the quarter with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting.  

The pressure on the Mercury is mounting as the Fever (15-16) upset the Connecticut Sun, the WNBA’s second-best team, on Wednesday. The Fever now are a half-game behind the Mercury (16-16) for the sixth seed and hold the season series tiebreaker after sweeping the Mercury. 

Phoenix stumbles out of the gate, trails Minnesota Lynx at halftime

The Phoenix Mercury once again had a slow start in the first quarter and are struggling to make up for it, trailing the Minnesota Lynx 46-37 at halftime. 

Diana Taurasi missed all four of her free-throw attempts but scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting and Brittney Griner leads with five rebounds.

Given how crucial the remainder of the season is for playoff seeding, head coach Nate Tibbetts made a key switch with Monique Billings at starting power forward over Sophie Cunningham in Wednesday’s game at Footprint Center.

Tibbetts noted that Billings was used to help stimulate the glass game against one of the WNBA’s better defenses. Cunningham has been dealing with lingering shoulder pain this season, but was the top option off the bench. She led the team in scoring with 12 points at the half.

Billings was tied for second in rebounding with four rebounds and the Mercury tied the Lynx’s output with 20 rebounds.

Minnesota took advantage of the Mercury’s miscues and scored 18 points off 10 turnovers in the first quarter. The Mercury couldn’t stop the Lynx shooters, who spurred a 17-0 run.

Cunningham snapped the Mercury out of the funk with a 3-pointer at 3:10 and the Mercury finished with a 6-2 run in the final minute to trail by 10 points.