In many ways it seemed as if the Connecticut Sun won its 2012 playoff opener twice.

The Sun charged out to a 14-point lead in the first half only to allow New York to rallied to tie the game twice in the third quarter. In danger of dropping the first game in the best of three series to a New York Liberty team which backed its way into the playoffs, the Sun responded with a game-deciding 12-0 run late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter.

Veteran guard Tan White started the rally with a perfect pass to Kara Lawson for a transition layup and ended it with a steal and layup.


“Once we got a steal, we got in the open court and got a bucket,” White said. “It seemed like things came easy for us after that and I think we just got back in rhythm after that.

“It was a big one, it was a big win for us. We kind of saw how the playoffs were going to be
played.”

White's numbers (six points, four rebounds, two steals) don't jump off the page but she delivered some clutch plays and also had a key role in limiting Cappie Pondexter to 3 of 16 shooting from the field.

"We know she is a big piece of their team," White said. "We know she is a great scorer and you are not going to just shut her out but you just want to make sure that everything that she takes is hard so if me and Ally (Hightower) or whoever (guards her) just makes it tough on her to keep her from doing what she wants to do. I think we did a good job of that tonight."

The Liberty made a run in the second quarter to get back into the game. Back to back 3-pointers by Nicole Powell cut a 12-point lead in half and by halftime the Sun's lead was just seven.

New York opened the third quarter with seven straight points to tie the game.

"We knew they were going to come out strong in the second half," Asjha Jones said. "We were ready for it but we couldn't get anything going on offense so to get something easy in transition was real good for us. Tan did a great job tonight."