Mohegan — Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller had perhaps the best description of Friday night’s bonkers 79-78, come-from-behind win over the Seattle Storm.

“Gritty, gutty, ugly and pretty,” Miller quipped.

Yes on all four counts.

The Sun endured enough misfortune for an entire week in the first half of their game against Seattle, the worst of which might be an injury to reserve guard Rachel Banham.

Connecticut trailed the majority of the game, including a seven-point deficit with 1 minute, 26 seconds. But it never quit.

Shekinna Stricklen scored 16 of her team-high 24 in the second half, including two go-ahead free throws with 4 seconds left, to give Connecticut one of the gutsiest and wildest wins in franchise history before a delirious crowd of 7,092 at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“We battled in the second half,” Stricklen said. “We could’ve easily given up down seven with (over) a minute left and we didn’t.”

Stricklen started laughing at the absurdity of it all and added, “It all worked out.”

The Sun fell behind by as much as 13 points (61-48) with 2:34 left in the third quarter.

Connecticut trailed, 76-69, with 1:26 remaining in the game.

“I’m just happy,” Sun Alyssa Thomas said. “We did not play as well as we would have liked to today, but we never gave up and we fought to the end.

“(Stricklen) played amazing. Courtney (Williams, six steals) did her thing on defense, and we just ground out a tough win."

Alyssa Thomas had 17 points, 11 rebounds and five steals and Jasmine Thomas had 11 points and seven assists for the Sun (18-8), which guaranteed themselves a winning record with eight games remaining.

Connecticut set franchise records for most steals in a game (19) and most in a quarter (10 in the fourth).

Jasmine Thomas, Stricklen and Williams played the entire second half and Alyssa Thomas played all but 13 seconds. That was after the team spent 14 hours traveling home Thursday from Phoenix.

WNBA MVP candidate Natasha Howard had 27 points and 10 rebounds for the Storm (14-13). Crystal Langhorne had 14 points and seven rebounds and Jewell Loyd scored 14.

Seattle shot 50 percent for the fourth time this season (the Sun shot 39.2 percent). It was 15-0 when shooting at least 50 percent dating back to last season.

The Storm, however, had 27 turnovers.

“We didn't take care of the ball and gave them opportunities where we should have been shooting free throws or getting opportunities,” Seattle head coach Dan Hughes said.

“It’s a game of spurts and they had the last one.”

Jones made two free throws to cut the Sun’s deficit to 76-71 with 1:26 left in the game.

Williams had a steal two seconds later with Alyssa Thomas immediately making a layup. Stricklen followed with a steal of her own. It led to Jasmine Thomas’ layup that cut Seattle’s lead to 76-75 with 47.1 seconds remaining.

Howard made two free throws on the other end with 15.1 seconds left.

Jasmine Thomas made another layup with 10.7 seconds left. Seattle inbounded, and Williams immediately tipped a pass.

Stricklen raced towards the ball with her and the Storm’s Sami Whitcomb grasping at the ball as they and the ball went out-of-bounds.

The call on the floor was Sun ball. That was advantageous for them because the officials had to have sufficient evidence to overturn the call during their video review.

The officials upheld the call. Stricklen was fouled with 4 seconds left and made both free throws to give the Sun their first lead since 8:37 of the second quarter.

Alyssa Thomas stole the inbounds pass to ice the game.

“I’ll give credit to Connecticut,” Howard said. “They fought till the end and never gave up.”

Banham was injured while jumping for an offensive rebound underneath the basket with Seattle’s Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Howard with 1:23 left in the first quarter.

Banham fell as she landed and immediately grabbed her left leg in pain as play continued. She had to be helped off the floor. There was no word about her status after the game.

Banham has dealt with knee injuries multiple times in her career. She injured the ACL and MCL in her right knee 10 games into the 2014-15 season at the University of Minnesota. She played just 15 games her rookie season with the Sun after needing microfracture surgery on her right knee.

The Sun led 21-15 at the time of Banham’s injury Friday night.

Seattle then scored 15 straight to go ahead, 30-21, with 6:26 left in the first half.

Connecticut played part of that stretch without Jones, who picked up two fouls in 13 seconds with 1:37 left in the first quarter.

Jones returned with 7:19 remaining in the first half … and went back to the bench less than a minute later after being whistled for her third foul.

The final 18.8 seconds of the first half ended poorly for Connecticut, too.

Loyd made a free throw after Miller was called for a technical foul.

Howard scored on a layup with 3.5 seconds remaining. Loyd then stole the inbounds pass and laid it up just before the buzzer to push Seattle ahead 46-34.

“It really affected us,” Stricklen said about Banham’s injury. “She’s important to this team. She brings the energy. She’s always the first one off the bench to give someone a high-five during a timeout. … Seeing her go down, it really hurt. We’re family here. We love each and everyone one of us.

“Honestly, that was all I was thinking about really was her. It really gave me another boost of energy in the second half.”

n.griffen@theday.com