After beating the Lynx on Sunday, Connecticut Sun guard Marina Mabrey walked into the postgame news conference and made a beeline to a refrigerator against the wall of the Target Center lounge.
“A little postgame snack,” she said as she grabbed a Coke Zero from the fridge and a box of popcorn off the nearby table, looking around to make sure it was allowed.
Mabrey deserved it. Her game-high 20 points led Connecticut to a 73-70 victory in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinal series. Her six three-pointers (6-for-11) single-handedly outnumbered the No. 2 Lynx, who shot 5-for-20.
The Lynx face two options in Tuesday’s Game 2: Slow Mabrey down, or keep pace with her.
The 28-year-old guard was a late addition for the Sun off a July trade with the Chicago Sky, which gave one of the league’s best post teams a new scoring threat.
“That was fun. [Alyssa Thomas] does a really good job of finding me … so I’m always ready to shoot when she passes to me,” Mabrey said. “That’s what they brought me here to do. I’m going to get out there and shoot the ball.”
After scoring a playoff-record 27 points off the bench in Connecticut’s Game 1 against Indiana, Mabrey started against the Lynx in place of guard Tyasha Harris, out with a right ankle injury picked up against the Fever.
“It’s a scorer’s mentality on the perimeter,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said before Sunday’s game. “Ty Harris has been terrific for them in that space, and now you add Mabrey to that, and that’s an additional scorer. That was a huge trade. A huge trade.”