“I got chills,” she said.
The Sun’s WNBA matchup Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Sparks — the first ever women’s professional basketball game staged at TD Garden, home of the 18-time NBA Champion Boston Celtics — was a breakthrough for a sport that in recent years had made breaking through feel routine.
“I’m stepping on the floor as a participant, not a fan, right?” White said. “You walk in as a fan, and you’re kind of in awe, and you’re looking at things, but it’s different when you’re stepping on the floor to participate.
“I think about all a lot of different experiences I’ve had as a player and as a coach, and there are moments that stand out, whether it’s, you know, winning the WNBA championship, whether it’s you know, Game 5s, big shots, sold out crowds that I’ve been a part of as a player. And this, the moment of stepping on the floor with nobody else in the building was definitely one of them. It’s definitely a highlight.”
It was the same when the Sun stepped on the floor, and the same when they walked off with a 69-61 victory. Connecticut sealed the victory with a 14-2 run to close out the game.
“As a human being and as a sports fan I want us all to enjoy this moment that we have right now,” White said.
Guard DiJonai Carrington sparked the Sun (20-7) with a game-high 19 points and on 8-of-17 shooting. Brionna Jones added 15 points and seven rebounds. Alyssa Thomas scored 9 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in 37 minutes, the most she’s played since returning from the Olympics.
After leading by as much as 11, the Sun found themselves in a dogfight with six minutes left. A putback by Rickea Jackson (14 points) pulled LA within 53-52. Carrington’s swipe on Jackson’s arm sent Jackson to the line for a free throw that tied it at 53.
After Carrington finished off a fast break with a short jumper that made it 55-53, LA’s Odyssey Sims drove the lane for a lefthanded finish off the backboard and drew contact and a foul from Jones to for a go-ahead free throw, giving the Sparks a 56-55 lead.
Moments later, Sims worked a pick-and-roll with Dearica Hamby, who used a pump fake to get Jones off her feet, drawing the foul and finishing the layup to push the lead to 59-55.
The Sun had to rely on their defense to restore order. Jones grabbed a rebound after Hamby misfired on a wing 3. She threw the outlet to Carrington, but a turnover at halfcourt put Jones on the wrong end of a 3-on-1 situation. Jones managed to break it up, started another break that Thomas finished with a foul-inducing and-1 layup.
Things snowballed for the Sparks. With 1:22 remaining, Sparks coach Curt Miller, who was on the Sun sidelines for seven years, was ejected for storming onto the court to argue what he thought was a foul as Sparks forward Stephanie Talbot drove to the rim.
It proved to be the final unraveling of the Sparks, who suffered their sixth straight loss.
Between Thomas winning a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, team president Jennifer Rizzotti winning a bronze with the women’s 3-x-3 team, Abi Olajuwon, daughter of Hakeem Olajuwon, on the bench as an assistant for Nigeria’s women’s team, the Sun juggled the rewards and the responsibilities of the Olympics.
After nearly a month off, they returned and immediately went on the road, thumping the Dallas Wings, then letting one slip away against the Atlanta Dream. From Atlanta, a packed itinerary awaited the team in Boston, showcasing women’s basketball with events around the city leading up to game night.
Then, there was still the matter of winning a basketball game. The Sun, after all, were still in second place, 3½ games behind the Liberty, the same team they lost to last year in the second round of the WNBA playoffs.
The Sun went into the half up, 41-35. They went into the locker room on a high after Ty Harris (14 points) drained a straightaway 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds left.
For White, the key was finding a balance between celebrating the moment and keeping the main thing the main thing.
“It’s number one,” she said. “Being realistic about where we are. We’re adding some new pieces. We have to understand that that’s going to take some time.
“You’re coming in the back half of the season and everybody’s fighting for something — whether it’s seeding, whether it’s getting into the playoffs, some rosters are finally getting healthy, some are still dealing with injury. So everybody’s fighting for something.”
Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.
