Day Staff ReportsSeattle - Another game. Another way for the Connecticut Sun to lose.

Connecticut led the league-leading Seattle Storm by seven points with over three minutes remaining in Thursday's game before Seattle used a combination of clutch plays and Sun miscues to hand the latter their fourth straight loss, 83-82, before 7,539 at Key Arena.

Connecticut led, 79-72, with 3 minutes, 19 seconds left to play.

"Bad poise," Sun coach Mike Thibault said of the final minutes. "(A) shot clock violation. Go to sleep on a three by Sue Bird. Get beat to a loose ball and (commit) a ridiculous foul. That's my take.

"It was a great game, but we didn't win. And now it puts us under .500 and we got a lot of ground to make up."

Connecticut (13-14) falls below .500 for the first time this season. It trails the fourth-place New York Liberty by 2½ games with seven games remaining in the regular season. New York holds the tiebreaker over the Sun having won three of their four meetings.

Connecticut has lost 10 of its last 14 games.

Lauren Jackson had a game-high 31 points with eight rebounds for Seattle (23-4). Swin Cash added 21 points.

Renee Montgomery had 22 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for Connecticut and Tina Charles had 23 points and seven rebounds. Also, Asjha Jones had 13 points and nine rebounds.

The Storm outrebounded the Sun, 42-34. Seattle also had a season-high 28 second-chance points to Connecticut's season-low four.

Jackson and Camille Little began the Storm's final surge with back-to-back layups, cutting their team's deficit to 79-76 with 2:36 left.

Jones made a jumper for Connecticut, but Bird was left open on the other end for a 3-pointer.

Swin Cash blocked Jones on the Sun's next trip. The ball bounced to Connecticut's Sandrine Gruda, who was unaware that there were two seconds left on the shot clock. It resulted in a shot clock violation.

Cash (21 points) was fouled by Gruda trying to drive the lane and made two free throws to tie the game at 81 with 1:20 remaining.

Montgomery was fouled by Bird and made the first of two free throws to put Connecticut back ahead, 82-81, with 1:05 left.

Montgomery carelessly fouled Tanisha Wright on the other end just above the 3-point line and sent the latter to the free throw line.

Wright made both free throws to give Seattle an 83-82 lead with 53.9 remaining.

"We're all screaming, 'just play her!'" Thibault said. "Putting them on the line with the chance to go ahead, it's crazy. We had the lead."

Asked about her aggressiveness resulting in a foul, Montgomery said: "Yeah, playing aggressive always. Sometimes you just got to know when to be aggressive and when not to."

Connecticut couldn't get a good look on its next possession. Kara Lawson was forced to take a 3-pointer and missed.

Wright missed a shot and the Sun got ball back with 2.5 seconds left.

Tan White's runner at the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

"The play was for Renee in the corner, Tina coming back to the post and, if wasn't there, to take a timeout," Thibault said. "Obviously we didn't take a timeout."

The Sun trailed 47-37 seconds into the third quarter when Charles, Montgomery and Jones led a comeback.

Montgomery had nine points and six assists in the third while Charles had eight points and Jones six points, giving their team a 66-62 lead to start the fourth quarter.

A Gruda jumper and three-point play pushed Connecticut's lead to 71-62 a minute into the fourth.