With the Connecticut Sun trailing and the shot clock winding down before halftime, DeWanna Bonner was determined to make a play. Already a move ahead of Dallas Wings guard Marina Mabrey thanks to a screen from Alyssa Thomas, the 14-year veteran dribbled seamlessly into a step-back 3-pointer from the top of the arc.

After draining the shot with a hand in her face Bonner paraded across midcourt emphatically yelling “and one!” at the referees. Though she didn’t get the call, the basket gave the Sun a huge boost at a pivotal moment of the winner-take-all Game 3 in the first round of the WNBA playoffs Wednesday night. They would end up tied at the half after officials took back two points from Dallas upon reviewing a further play.

“It fuels our whole team when you see DeWanna playing with that emotion,” Sun head coach and general manager Curt Miller said of the 35-year-old. “You could just feel it throughout our bench and the players on the floor, that kind of energy and passion is contagious.”

Bonner set the tone for the Sun in a 73-58 road win over the Wings to advance to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season. She led Connecticut in scoring and assists, recording 21 points and dishing out five dimes, and she also grabbed five rebounds.

“After we lost Game 2, she was ready to play again,” Thomas said of Bonner, her teammate and girlfriend. “There was no doubt in my mind she was coming out and she was gonna have a monster game and not let anybody stop her.”

Bonner was upset with herself after only taking four shots in Connecticut’s 89-79 loss in Game 2. She knew that couldn’t happen again in an elimination game. With that in mind, she attempted a season-high 20 shots from the field on Wednesday night, making seven of them.

“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Bonner said. “Make or miss, I was gonna take the shot, and if the ball was in my hand I’m going to be confident to make a play. And Alyssa made me mad in the second quarter, so I was ready to go. I’m a vet for reason. So when the game’s on the line, I want the ball.”

Known as the player to push everybody on the team to compete at their best, Thomas got into Bonner late in the second quarter. Though both declined to share the specifics of what was said beyond holding Bonner accountable, that push made a huge difference.

After having her shot ferociously blocked at the rim by Tearia McCowan with a little over a minute left, Bonner scored six consecutive points for Connecticut. She made a free-throw and steam-rolled into the paint from the top of the arc for a layup before hitting the 3-pointer.

“I was just trying to go on to run a little bit,” Bonner said. “Curt just made some great play calls. I think we just executed down the stretch and the three went in. So of course that was a momentum changer. But at that point I was like, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’”

The Sun looked off offensively throughout much of the first half but managed to enter the third quarter with the game tied at 34-34 in large part to Bonner’s efforts, along with an emphasis on creating disruption on defense and second chance points. She was the only Connecticut player in double-figures at the break, leading the way with 11 points.

Bonner started the third quarter right where she left off, scoring a pull-up jumper on the Sun’s first possession. She had back-to-back assists a few minutes later, finding Thomas with space to maneuver into a spinning jumper and then dishing it to a wide-open Natisha Hiedeman for a corner trey that put Connecticut up 42-38 with under six and a half minutes left in the period.

That lead only continued to grow behind Bonner’s play. She assisted on 13 of the Sun’s points — good for 56.5% of their production — as they outscored the Wings 23-12 in the quarter. Connecticut entered the fourth up 57-46.

With under eight minutes left in the contest, Bonner took a handoff from Thomas at the Wings logo and drove all the way to the basket on Mabrey, leaving her trailing in the dust as the ball rolled in. The bucket was Bonner’s 300th career field goal in the playoffs, making her just the 10th player in WNBA history to reach that mark.

“DB has a championship pedigree,” Miller said. “She played great tonight. I can’t say enough about what she brought to the team beyond the stat sheet, just her confidence and swagger tonight was really contagious.”

Bonner is the only player on Connecticut’s roster with an WNBA title, having won twice with the Phoenix Mercury (2009, 2014) before switching teams ahead of the 2020 season. That experience will be crucial for the Sun as they hope to hang their first banner in franchise history this year. But in order to get there, they’ll first have to get past a semifinal matchup against the reigning champion Chicago Sky, who have won the last six games between the two teams dating back to the 2021 semifinals.

“We still have a bitter taste in our mouth from from last season,” Thomas said. “We know it’s gonna be a tough series. … We’re gonna give everything we got.”