Mercury set WNBA record, scoring a monster 45 points in one quarter vs. Sun
The Phoenix Mercury are not having a good season. They've got the second-worst record in the WNBA and haven't even won 10 games yet. But for one quarter on Thursday night, they were the best in WNBA history.
In the first quarter against the Connecticut Sun, the Mercury scored 45 points, a record for most points scored in one quarter of a WNBA game. The Mercury's new record replaced the previous record of 44 points, which was set on July 23 by the New York Liberty.
Phoenix took 17 shots in the first quarter and missed just one, which comes out to 94.1% shooting. Diana Turasi and Brittney Griner scored nine points each. At one point, the Mercury were up 26-3 and had a massive 23-point lead.
Everything was going the Mercury's way in the first quarter, right down to the final moments. With seconds left in the quarter, the score was 42-24. The Mercury were just shy of the record. That's when Moriah Jefferson heaved the ball from down the court. It fell in at the buzzer and put the Mercury in the history books.
EVERYTHING IS FALLING FOR THE @PhoenixMercury 🤯@_BonnBonn gets the deep heave to fall at the buzzer to cap off an historic 45 PT first quarter outing for the Mercury, marking the most PTS in a single quarter in WNBA HISTORY
📺 @PrimeVideo pic.twitter.com/H2iJDV5sI3— WNBA (@WNBA) August 11, 2023
The Phoenix didn't keep up that record pace. If they did, they would have beaten the Sun 180-84. The actual final score was 90-84, which means after that 45-point first quarter, they scored 45 points over the next three quarters combined. In the second quarter, they attempted just six shots, scoring just seven points, and had 11 turnovers that resulted in 13 points for the Sun. But that historic 45-point first quarter is what kept them afloat.
"It was great team basketball in the first quarter and I joked with them that we had the best first quarter in WNBA history and the worst second quarter," interim head coach Nikki Blue said via the Arizona Republic. "Essentially, that’s how our season has been. Earlier in the season, we would have lost this game.”
The the 21-8 Sun do not typically look like they did in the first quarter. They're a stronger, more cohesive team, which they showed throughout the rest of the game. But they may have been knocked for a loop when star DeWanna Bonner got knocked out of the game early with a back issue, and Phoenix took advantage.
Sun head coach Stephanie White had glowing things to say about the Mercury after the game.
"This is a team in Phoenix that is certainly better than their record indicates. They’re playing really great basketball right now. They came out and they just knocked us in the mouth, and we spent the whole game trying to recover."
Connecticut coach Stephanie White #WNBA— jeffmetcalfe (@jeffmetcalfe) August 11, 2023
White wants to make the nine-win Mercury look as good as possible since her second-place squad just lost to them, but it's not all hot air. The Phoenix looked genuinely unstoppable for an entire quarter of basketball. All they need to do is figure out how to do that over all four quarters (or even two or three) instead of just one.
