Mohegan — The Connecticut Sun didn’t exactly take spins around the maypole after losses the past two seasons, but the locker room sometimes had a detached vibe to it.

Oh, how the mood has changed this summer. The team was somewhere between angry and enraged after Thursday’s 77-74 loss to the Chicago Sky before 5,607 at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“We’re mad about this loss,” a dour Alex Bentley said as she stared at a box score.

Bentley never looked up as she spoke.

She was that ticked off.

Connecticut had a great chance to win despite starting center Kelsey Bone sitting out one game for elbowing Natalie Achnowa in the head during Tuesday’s 92-84 loss to the Indiana Fever.

(The Sun were irate after that loss, too.)

Connecticut (7-3) held Elena Delle Donne to a season-low 12 points, 16.7 points under her WNBA-leading average. Perennial all-star Cappie Pondexter scored just eight, too.

“That’s why I’m so disappointed,” Sun coach Anne Donovan said. “We did such good things. To outrebound them (32-28) without Bone, (and) to hold Delle Donne to 12 and Cappie to eight, we did such good things defensively. But the fourth quarter, you have to score. And we struggled to put the ball in the hole.”

The Sun missed 12 of 14 shots in the fourth quarter and were outscored 19-9.

Allie Quigley scored 7 of her 19 points in the final period. That included two free throws with 15.4 seconds remaining that put Chicago ahead to stay, 75-74.

“We definitely let one slip away,” Connecticut forward Alyssa Thomas said. “We were playing really well. Good defensively. We were executing pretty well, but then we got cold towards the end and we were putting them on the free throw line.”

The Sky (6-5) made all eight of their fourth-quarter free throws. Delle Donne accounted for four (she averaged a league-high 9.3 free throw attempts prior to Thursday).

Connecticut led by as much as 11 points (58-47) with over two minutes left in the third quarter.

“We just didn’t have a good rhythm,” Sun post Camille Little said of the fourth quarter. “I think we just got stagnant and we were easy to guard.”

Courtney Vandersloot had 16 points and former Connecticut forward Jessica Breland had 10 points for the Sky. Delle Donne also had a game-high 10 rebounds.

Bentley nearly carried the Sun offense by herself. She made 11 of 24 field goals for a career-high 25 points.

“Alex stopped making shots that she was making early,” Donovan said, “and I think we came out of sync a little bit. We were going with our two-man game with our high post and wing. It was working pretty well for us, and I think Alex was feeling good, and some of those same shots didn’t fall.”

Little had 12 points and four rebounds for Connecticut. Thomas added 12 points and nine rebounds. Over half of that production came after she got tangled up with Pondexter early in the third quarter and fell hard on her side, banging against the basket’s stanchion. She had to leave the game for several minutes.

“I have to talk about Alyssa Thomas,” Donovan said. “That kid, who I’m sure is going to be sore for several days, just battles. She just battles, and (Betnijah) Laney was in there to play physical and try to keep her off the glass, and AT still walks away with six offensive boards. And she kind of characterizes this team and how hard they play.

“They refuse to be outmatched, so it’s a tough loss because I feel like we had it. We made some mistakes late in the game that we need to clean up.”

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED