Howdy,

How to describe ConnSun’s game at bucolic Newark Thursday?

First thing that pops to mind is, "What in the green hell was that?"

Every team an ebb and flow to their season. It’s just odd to see both extremes in about 48 hours.

Tuesday, El Sol scored the second-most points in franchise history as they thwacked the league-leading Minnesota Lynx, 108-79.

Thursday, Connecticut set a franchise record by gakking up an 18-point lead and losing in overtime to the New York Liberty, 84-81.

All credit to New York for pulling off the win, never mind pulling itself out of a ditch. It also gave head coach/upstanding Okie John Whisenant his 100th career win in style.

A potential storyline for the fourth and final meeting between the teams (Sept. 11 at Neon Uncasville) is that the Liberty have another big body to throw at Sun center Tina Charles — reserve Kara Braxton.

Charles played at a ludicrous level through three quarters Thursday as she had 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Charles had only four points and two rebounds the rest of the game as Braxton helped plug up the lane.

Braxton was acquired from Phoenix weeks ago after the two had a falling out. She gives the Liberty an uber-big body (6-foot-6, 225 pounds) as well as someone who contributed to two WNBA championships with the Detroit Shock.

New York already had a big center in starter Kia Vaughn (6-4, 208) as well as reserve Quanitra Hollingsworth (6-5, 203).

That’s three large posts to dog Charles.

All things considered, Sun Kara Lawson was pretty even-tempered after the loss. Wouldn’t have blamed her or any of her teammates if they felt like rearranging the locker room with extreme prejudice.

Nope. Lawson noted that she’s been around the WNBA too long and been through enough outrageous games.

“I told the team after the game to understand that (Thursday) was like a playoff game,” Lawson said. “This weekend is like a playoff series. You play Game 1 on the road (at Atlanta). Game 2 is at home (Sunday) against the same team. Start getting yourself in that mindset, taking time to prepare for how difficult wins are going to be. Understanding how close the games are going to be and that mistakes down the stretch, you can’t have them. You can’t have so many of them. We just had too many mistakes.

“It wasn’t one person. It wasn’t one missed shot. It wasn’t one missed play. But if you go through those last six or seven plays down the stretch on offense and defense, somebody was making a small mistake and you’ve got to eliminate those, as many as you can.

“This is a great opportunity to reveal how far along we are. Are we ready for these types of pressure situations and playing against the good teams? … Are you ready to play the upper echelon teams, and can you go on the road and beat them?”

Vaya con dios….