Mohegan — There are times in sports, unless you're a jerk out of habit and not reaction, that one must tip the cap. Even if the outcome of the game suggests you'd rather throw the cap in disgust.

Take, for example, Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. Tina Charles, who heard some boos during pregame introductions, was sensational for the New York Liberty. Thirty-one points and eight rebounds later, the Liberty left Neon Uncasville with a 90-78 win over the Connecticut Sun.

Full disclosure: I don't care for Charles. I found her to be alarmingly pouty during her time with the Sun, especially for a player who was rarely asked a tough question. I found her to be disingenuous at the end, pulling a diva act (though she's surely not the first in this league to do so) to get out of town.

And I thought she was headed for WNBA witness protection in New York. Aside from Cappie Pondexter, she didn't have anybody else of note around her at the time of the trade from the Sun to the Liberty.

Now? Whoa. Charles, who is perfectly lethal with Epiphanny Prince, is playing like an MVP candidate again. Prince isn't far behind. Then there's Tanisha Wright, whose nine assists got lost in Friday's boxscore. The Liberty have a team very capable of representing the Eastern Conference in the finals.

I'm not sure why, exactly, Chicago thought trading Prince to the Liberty for Pondexter was a great idea. Prince is several years younger. Perhaps Prince pulled the same act in Chicago as Charles did here. It's really not relevant anymore. They are together and dangerous. The New York media ought to start paying attention. A successful women's basketball team in New York could do wonders for the growth of the game. Lest we forget Charles is a New York kid and Prince went to Rutgers.

"At the end of a game coaches are always thinking about what we could have done differently," Sun coach Anne Donovan said. "We went in not trapping Tina in the low post, prepared to go to that if we needed to. Tina was doing her damage outside the low post. She played like an MVP candidate, no doubt.

"Piph (Prince) has been playing that well. Coming in, we hoped we could control her a little better and that just wasn't the case. Their combination, when they are playing off of each other, is very dangerous."

It sure is. Look at it this way: The Sun's Alex Bentley and Kelsey Bone shot a combined 16-for-24. They had 36 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Terrific numbers for a guard-center combination. Then there was the Prince-Charles (somebody really ought to go to town with "Prince Charles" by the way) combination: 54 points on 23-for-38 shooting. Video game numbers.

"It took them a while to incorporate Piph," Donovan said. "Nobody's going to talk about Tanisha Wright, but she's one of the smartest guards out there. High IQ and knows how to keep people in their roles."

It is to the Sun's credit that the Liberty needed every bit of the Prince-Charles dominance. The Sun, frustrated all night by their inability to get a defensive stop and penchant to handle the ball like an explosive, fought within 81-76 with about three minutes remaining. Connecticut got a stop and then an open three for Camille Little. Little's shot was halfway down. It would have brought the Sun within two. At that point, who knows?

"We talked about two things (in the locker room after the game)," Donovan said. "They shot (51) percent and we've got to get them lower than that. I'll be shocked if I go back and watch that tape tonight and see that they were forced turnovers. Most of the turnovers were on us. And they converted on almost every one of them."

This is going to be a playoff push for the Sun. Yet it may come without Alyssa Thomas (shoulder) who may be gone through August. Elizabeth Williams is out at least three games. There's only so much production they can fairly expect from Jen Lacy, Kayla Pedersen and Kelly Faris, their consistent, notable efforts notwithstanding.

"A lot of our offensive boards come from Alyssa," Donovan said. "We're missing all of her scrap play and her rebounding. ... New York is No. 1 in our conference for a reason. We move on to the next game, that's all we can do."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BCgenius