New York — It was quite the contrast, 17,443 fans (mostly kids) in the stands at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, and the Connecticut Sun playing on the arena floor.

The New York Liberty hosted Camp Day, a spastic, sonic display in which tens of thousands of screaming kids armed with Thundersticks make a joyful (and ear-shattering) noise.

It did for the game what a needle of adrenaline did for Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction."

The Sun, on the other hand, were uncharacteristically blah and ripe for a 96-80 thumping at the hands of Tina Charles and the New York Liberty.

Connecticut (12-9) just didn't play the same passion that has lifted the franchise into a WNBA playoff contender. All-Star point guard Jasmine Thomas had a legitimate excuse — she suddenly got ill before the game and began vomiting. She missed 8 of 12 shots and scored nine points.

Chalk up the rest of the Sun's struggles to being one of those days, as well as enigmatic New York (10-9) showing how good it can be when playing at a high level.

The game changed in the third quarter as Connecticut made just 5 of 16 shots (31.3 percent). The Liberty, meanwhile, scored 13 unanswered points to open a 74-52 lead with seconds left in the third.

"Our defense wasn't on-point as it has been," forward Alyssa Thomas said. "I think we've been playing really good team defense. Today, we didn't play the way we needed to, and they just got to places they wanted to on the court."

Exhibit A of Connecticut's bad day: the Liberty doubled up the Sun in rebounds (48-24).

The Sun also settled for too many jumpers instead of attacking the rim.

"We always talk about being the aggressor," Connecticut head coach Curt Miller said. "I thought (New York) set the tone. (They) were very, very aggressive."

"The big stat line was obviously (the Liberty) dominated the boards. Our percentage of offensive rebounding was bad tonight. When you miss 44 shots, you can't get a lot (of rebounds) back. It put them in transition a lot."

The Sun had beaten New York in their previous two meetings (96-76 and 94-89).

"This is a team that we can potentially see in the playoffs," Liberty guard Sugar Rodgers said, "and we just wanted to make a statement (today). Like, 'Okay, you beat us twice,' but we came out to play hard (Wednesday) and we got the win."

It was hardly the way the Connecticut wanted to go into the All-Star break. It fell into a third-place tie in the overall league standings with the Washington Mystics. Washington rallied from a 21-point deficit to beat the Atlanta Dream 100-96 in overtime on Wednesday.

Just 4.5 games separate the Sun and Mystics from Chicago (7-13), which is second-to-last. The top eight teams, regardless of conference affiliation, make the postseason.

Charles was in hellion mode for New York. She made 12 of 21 shots and had a game-high 28 points and 17 rebounds.

"Tina was really, really aggressive," Miller said. "She was a handful early. It wasn't our best night and, hats off, they were the aggressor."

The Liberty's Shavonte Zellous made all 11 of her free throws and scored 16.

Jonquel Jones had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Sun and Alyssa Thomas had 10 points and two steals. Lynetta Kizer added 11 points off the bench.

New York used a 23-5 run midway through the third quarter to blow the game open, turning a four-point lead into a 22-point cushion.

"We have this little break to regroup and come out strong for the season half (of the season)," All-Star reserve Alyssa Thomas said. "We have a tough Chicago team (to play) when we come back. … We can't dwell on it."

n.griffen@theday.com