Mohegan — DiJonai Carrington had not been making enough of an impact off the Connecticut Sun bench for head coach Curt Miller’s liking during Tuesday afternoon’s game, so the two had … a dialogue.

“Curt got (on) me a little bit in the third quarter and I had to respond,” Carrington said.

What exactly did Miller say?

Carrington laughed, paused and replied, “Play hard.”

Carrington did more than enough after her conversation with Miller. She scored 14 of her career-high 18 points during a decisive fourth quarter as the Sun pulled away from the New York Liberty 82-63 before a raucous crowd of 6,288 at Mohegan Sun Arena, many of which were youngsters attending the game as part of Camp Day.

Alyssa Thomas stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points, 13 rebounds, six steals and five assists for Connecticut (17-9) and Brionna Jones had 21 points and eight rebounds. Natisha Hiedeman added 10 points and four assists.

Former UConn standout Bria Hartley, who signed with the Sun on Monday and arrived in town after midnight, played over 12 minutes and had two assists.

Sabrina Ionescu had 13 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Liberty (9-16) and UConn’s Stefanie Dolson added 12 points and six rebounds.

Carrington had been in a shooting slump over the previous 10 games. She shot 25% from the floor during that stretch and averaged almost as many steals (1.2) as made field goals (1.3).

Carrington made 5 of 7 shots and all six of her free throws Tuesday.

Miller, when asked what he told Carrington in the third quarter, began smiling.

“I have conversations with ‘Nai all the time,” Miller said. “(I) just challenged her to be really sound. She can gamble a little bit. She can try to do too much on the offensive end and we needed her defense. We needed her energy.

“(I’m) really happy for her. She hasn’t seen the ball through the hoop a ton in recent games and you know that was needed for her.”

The Liberty can be dangerous because they have multiple shooters and rely on the 3 ball, averaging a WNBA-high 28.3 3-point attempts. And when they get into a groove, look out.

New York shot 58.1% (18 of 31) from the 3-point line during a 116-107 win at the second-place Las Vegas Aces on July 6.

The Liberty scored a league-record 73 in the second half of their 107-101 home loss to the Aces on July 12.

New York shot 40.6% (13 of 32) behind the arc and led by as many as 13 points during an 81-77 road win over Connecticut on June 22.

The Sun held New York to 36.4% shooting Tuesday and 17 points under its scoring average.

“Just really pleased with our defense,” Miller said. “I felt even when they made shots and made runs we were in plays which we weren’t against them last time. And we flew around and we played really hard and it all started with post pressure. I thought Bri Jones and Alyssa Thomas were elite at the defensive end which allowed us to get out and run because we held that team to under 40% for the game, which is an accomplishment.”

Connecticut outscored the Liberty 29-13 in the fourth quarter. It went on a 16-0 run with over five minutes left that included a Carrington block on a driving Ionescu to set up a transition basket on the other end for DeWanna Bonner.

Carrington also made a 3 with Ionescu in her face during that run.

The Sun led by as many as 23 points (80-57) with 1 minute, 40 seconds left.

“I just stayed aggressive and played confident,” Carrington said. “I think it always starts when I play good on defense. I think that’s what gets me going offensively.”

n.griffen@theday.com