Lynx suffer first loss in overtime battle with undefeated Sun

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For the second straight game, the Minnesota Lynx played free basketball.

This time it only took one extra session. And the result went the wrong way.

DeWanna Bonner made two free throws with 7.4 seconds left, Kayla McBride missed a game-winning jumper with 1.4 ticks to go, and the Lynx fell 83-82 to the Sun on Thursday in Uncasville, Connecticut.

“We battled. We did enough to win the game. It just didn’t happen,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.

Minnesota beat Seattle 102-93 in double overtime in its home opener last Friday.

The Lynx had five days between games after that victory. This one comes in the first of three games in four days in three cities. The Lynx (2-1) are home to New York on Saturday at noon and in Atlanta on Sunday.

Napheesa Collier led Minnesota with 31 points and 11 rebounds.

But it’s the points she left on the court that eat at her. Collier made five of nine free-throw attempts. Two misses came in the extra five minutes.

”I would have made my free throws we wouldn’t have gone to overtime; when we went to overtime we could have won the game,” she said. “… When you miss free easy baskets like that that cost you the game I just take a lot of that responsibility.”

Courtney Williams, who finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists, quickly pointed out it’s a team game. “There’s so many plays that transpired where we could have went on a run and it wouldn’t have come down a free throw. That’s all our responsibility. We got to make those plays, not just all fall on Phee.”

McBride drained one from the right elbow with 13.6 seconds left for an 82-81 Lynx lead, but Bonner, who led the Sun (4-0) — the WNBA’s last unbeaten team — with 20 points, was fouled and made both.

For the Lynx, protecting the paint was a defensive focus because Connecticut thrives inside where its 40 points per game were third-best in the WNBA entering the contest. The Lynx have allowed an average of 44 inside points in their first three games.

“It’s what we expected when we came here. The 46 points in the paint is just really difficult when you know that’s a team’s identity,” Reeve said. “It is hard to stop them from getting there, but that’s what we’re going to point to, that we’ve got to do better there.”

Brionna Jones had 19 points for Connecticut, and Alyssa Thomas added 18.

“They’re strong. Their entire game is in the paint. … Almost all of their players want to be in there so it makes it a pretty tough assignment,” Collier said.

Williams scored on a drive for a five-point lead with 1:41 left in overtime, but a putback by Thomas got the Sun within three. A fadeaway from Collier got stuck between the rim and backboard, Connecticut won the subsequent jump ball, and Rachel Banham made a 3-pointer for the Sun.

Banham, the former Gophers star who played the past four seasons for the Lynx, finished with six points and five rebounds.

“They made tough shots. I thought our defense was really good. Rachel came off a contested three, AT contested turnaround midrange,” Collier said.

Collier had four points in a 12-2 run that included triples from Bridget Carleton and McBride and a Williams jumper for a four-point lead at 67-63 midway through the fourth quarter.

Lynx starting forward Diamond Miller missed the second half with a right knee issue. Reeve had no postgame update. Miller had offseason surgery to repair the meniscus in her left knee.

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Minnesota Aurora blows out Chicago Dutch Lions 8-0 to start 2024 season

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Minnesota Aurora picked up right where it left off in the USL W League regular season on Thursday.

The amateur women’s soccer club blitzed the Chicago Dutch Lions in a 8-0 road win in Aurora, Ill. Aurora was undefeated in 2022 and ’23 regular seasons and remained unblemished to begin this year.

Aurora led 2-0 at halftime and then scored four goals in 15 minutes to open up the second half.

“They did what we asked them to do at halftime, which was to bring creativity, a way to unblock a road block, and find different ways to challenge the players,” head coach Colette Montgomery said in a news release. “Tess (Werts) did a phenomenal job, along with the entire squad tonight.”

Aurora will play River Light FC on Saturday before ether home opener against RKC Third Coast at TCO Stadium in Eagan on May 30.

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Minnesota redistricting process will count inmates at home addresses, instead of prison locations

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Minnesota has joined a growing list of states that plan to count prisoners at their home addresses instead of at the prisons they’re located when drawing new political districts.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz last week signed legislation that says last known addresses will be used for counting inmates, not the federal or state correctional facilities where they are housed. Prisoners whose last address is out of state or whose address is unknown would be excluded from the redistricting process, though they would be counted as part of Minnesota’s population total, according to the new law signed by the Democratic governor.

Eighteen states already have made similar changes to how prisoners are counted during the once-a-decade census. Most, but not all of the states, are controlled by Democrats and have large urban centers.

Although the U.S. Census Bureau has counted inmates as prison residents since 1850, states control redistricting and can move those populations to their home counties for that purpose or not include inmates at all when maps are drawn.

Advocates for the changes have argued that counting prisoners at their institutions shifts resources from traditionally liberal urban centers — home to many inmates who are disproportionately black and Hispanic — to rural, white, Republican-leaning areas where prisons are usually located.

Opponents, however, argue that towns with prisons need federal money for the additional costs they bring, such as medical care, law enforcement and road maintenance.

Population data collected from the census are used to carve out new political districts at the federal, state and local levels during the redistricting process every 10 years.

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Saints walk their way to a win in Game 1 in Buffalo before loss in second game

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After weather cut Wednesday’s game short in the third inning, the St. Paul Saints and Buffalo Bisons returned to the field on Thursday for 16 innings, starting with a resumption of Wednesday’s game.

Buffalo pitchers might have rather not resumed the game at all.

The Bisons walked 15 St. Paul batters for the game — a Saints’ franchise record — in an 18-3 win in Thursday’s first game. Buffalo had a better time of it in the second game, winning 5-1 in the regularly scheduled game.

The score was 3-1 when the rain halted play in the top of the third inning on Wednesday, the Saints playing from in front on a three-run homer by Tony Kemp. Buffalo scored once before the rain and then added another run in the third a day later. It was all St. Paul from there.

The Saints scored four times in the fourth. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. had an RBI single, Austin Martin and Chris Williams both walked with the bases loaded and Will Holland plated another run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

In the seventh, Matt Wallner scored a run with a sacrifice fly and Yunior Severino had an RBI single. Keirsey added an two-run double in the eighth before St. Paul poured it on with seven runs in the ninth. Diego A. Castillo had an RBI double, Keirsey and Wallner had RBI singles and Severino finished it off with a grand slam, his seventh homer of the season.

The offensive outburst, and walks, made a winner of reliever Scott Blewett (2-2), who pitched three scoreless innings on Thursday. Keirsey had four hits, four RBIs, three runs scored and a stolen base. Severino had four hits and five RBIs, while Martin walked five times.

St. Paul might have used up its offense for the day.

In the second game, the Saints only scored on Patrick Winkel’s solo homer in the second and totaled five hits, two from Michael Helman.

Adam Plutko (0-1) started the game for St. Paul, giving up three runs on three hits and a walk in 2 1/3 innings. Martin walked two more times in the second game.

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