Mohegan — The Connecticut Sun had all but lost the game, falling behind the Indiana Fever by 23 points late in the third quarter Tuesday night.

Remarkably, Connecticut put itself in position to win late when it lost it. Like, really lost it.

Sun center Kelsey Bone was called for a flagrant foul-penalty 2 and ejected with over a minute left in the game. Indiana went on to win 92-84 before 5,083 fans at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Alex Bentley made a 3-pointer to cut Connecticut’s deficit to 85-82 with 1 minute, 5 seconds left.

Bone, however, leveled Indiana’s Natalie Achonwa with an elbow to the head while moving toward the basket. Achonwa made both technical free throws and the Sun never got any closer.

It was quite a way for Connecticut to have its seven-game winning streak snapped.

“Everything was going so well in the fourth quarter,” Sun coach Anne Donovan said. “We finally got stops. We finally started to get some good looks, moving the ball, and I take some of that (blame). We ran a lot more ball screens in the fourth quarter that freed us up better offensively.

“We didn’t do that early enough, but as much as (Bone’s foul) came at a bad time and it led to buckets at the other end, she’s fighting for a game. She’s fighting to get that rebound if AB misses the 3. She’s fighting for that game and for that win.”

Donovan didn’t see the play.

“It’s a bad time (for it to happen), and we’re not going to do it again, but I can’t fault her for playing that hard,” she said.

A flagrant foul-penalty 2 is defined by the WNBA rule book as, “contact committed against a player, with or without the ball, is interpreted to be unnecessary and excessive. … This is an unsportsmanlike act and the offender is ejected.”

WNBA president Laurel Ritchie will review the play and Bone could be fined or suspended for her infraction.

Bone finished with a team-high 21 points for the Sun.

Connecticut (7-2) had been fortunate to overcome some double-digit deficits during its winning streak.

The odds finally caught up to the Sun after the Fever buried them under a 74-51 deficit with over a minute left in the third quarter.

“The lesson (tonight) is the same from the last few games ... we’ve been digging ourselves out of a hole,” Connecticut’s Jasmine Thomas said. “We just have to have that focus from the beginning. We’re not going to be able, for a whole season, to come (back) from holes 20 down. It’s too hard. It’s too much energy.”

Indiana’s Tamika Catchings punished the Sun with an extraordinary performance by even her lofty standards. She made all four of her 3-pointers and shot 9 of 10 from the floor for a game-high 26 points. She added a game-high 10 rebounds.

Catchings had been in a shooting funk. She made just seven of her last 41 shots over the previous three games. That included missing all 10 shots in an 80-63 win at the New York Liberty (June 19). It was just the second time in her 14-year career that she was scoreless.

“They picked us apart,” Connecticut’s Camille Little said. “Every time she scored, she had an open look in the corner from me helping in the post and then she knocked them down.”

Achonwa had 10 points and six rebounds for Indiana (4-6) and Shenise Johnson scored 13.

Thomas had 14 points, five assists and four steals for Connecticut and Bentley had 18 points and six assists.

Alyssa Thomas added 12 points, five rebounds and three assists and Little 12 points, five rebounds and three steals.

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED