Sparks rally late but fall short of upsetting the Sun

DiJonai Carrington scored 19 points, and the Connecticut Sun used a late 14-0 run to defeat the Sparks 69-61 on Tuesday night in the first WNBA game to played at the Boston Celtics' TD Garden.

A franchise record sellout crowd of 19,125 saw the Sun storm back after they trailed 59-55 with less than four minutes to play.

Carrington scored twice in the lane sandwiched around a three-point play by Alyssa Thomas, and in less than a minute Connecticut was up 62-59 with the crowd roaring.

Tyasha Harris converted a three-point play that made it 69-56 with 1:40 to go. In just more than two minutes the Sparks had missed two shots and two free throws and had four turnovers, which eventually became a four-minute scoring drought.

Brionna Jones had 15 points and Harris 14 for the Sun (20-7), who overcame an eight of 17 performance at the foul line. Thomas had nine points, eight assists and 16 rebounds.

Rookie Rickea Jackson and Azura Stevens both had 14 points for the Sparks (6-22).

Carrington, Harris and Jones were all in double figures as the Sun erased an early deficit to take a 41-35 lead at the half.

Connecticut led by 11 in the third quarter but L.A. cut it to 53-46 entering the fourth. The Sparks scored the first seven points to tie score, and turned that into a 13-2 run for a 59-55 lead.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .