With the Connecticut Sun losing starting forward Brionna Jones for the season to an Achilles injury, the next biggest player in the Sun’s rotation is 6-foot-5 center Olivia Nelson-Ododa, in her second season in the WNBA out of UConn.

Nelson-Ododa isn’t Jones, still gaining experience in the league.

But she also isn’t shying away from the task of helping to bolster the Sun’s frontcourt, playing perhaps the best game of her career in Connecticut’s last game, an 89-81 loss to the New York Liberty on Tuesday.

The Sun (12-4) continue their schedule at 3 p.m. today at Las Vegas (14-1), to be televised on ABC.

“I thought Liv was huge,” Sun coach Stephanie White said, “her defensive awareness, her ability to alter shots defensively, to get some deflections, to find the open areas offensively when they were rotating to (Alyssa Thomas). I thought she was really big.

“We’ll keep developing her skill set. It’s really easy to do that when you have somebody that has really good instincts.”

Nelson-Ododa, who came to the Sun this year in a trade from the Los Angeles Sparks, had a career-high 14 points against the Liberty, getting her trial by fire in guarding New York’s Jonquel Jones, the 2021 WNBA Most Valuable Player. Nelson-Ododa added five rebounds, two steals, an assist and a block.

She was an All-Big East first team selection at UConn in 2022 and the Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2021.

She gave the Sun a 41-39 lead with a putback against the Liberty and later had a three-point play that pulled Connecticut within 80-76 with 4:59 to play after the Sun had trailed by 16.

“I think just with experience, that helps me be more comfortable out there. It builds confidence, too,” Nelson-Ododa said. “I’m just trying to do as much as I can for my teammates when I’m out there ... not necessarily thinking I have to score this way or I have to defend this way or be like (Brionna Jones) or anything like that, but just contribute as much as possible.”

The Sun split a pair of games with the Aces this season, falling 90-84 on June 6 and handing Las Vegas its only loss, 94-77, on June 8.

Quotable

Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington, on teammate Alyssa Thomas’s second straight triple-double and her third in the last four games:

“I don’t want any of y’all to get used to and normalize what she’s doing out there, for real. That’s not normal, especially from a four player (forward). I think people are downplaying it. This girl, this woman has had three triple-doubles in the last 10 days. That’s insane. I’m just grateful to be surrounded by a player like that.”

Thomas, averaging 14.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 8.0 assists, has seven career triple-doubles, a record five in the regular-season.

v.fulkerson@theday.com