The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

JONQUEL Jones and her Connecticut Sun will tip off the WNBA’s landmark 25th season in less than a month.

According to the league’s regular season schedule, released earlier this week, the Sun’s 2021 campaign officially begins on May 14 on the road when they face the Atlanta Dream.

The Sun will make their home debut at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on May 16 in a matchup with the Phoenix Mercury. It will mark the Sun’s first game in their home area since the 2019 WNBA Finals.

The Sun schedule will include 32 games - 16 on the road and 16 at Mohegan Sun Arena - which features a month-long break between mid-July and mid-August while players will participate in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

This season will also feature a new look for the Sun on the court after Nike unveiled a trio of newly designed uniforms – the WNBA Nike Heroine Edition, the WNBA Nike Explorer Edition and the WNBA Nike Rebel Edition.

Jones will make her return to the Sun after she opted out of the 2020 WNBA season due to health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The league eventually hosted its shortened season in a restricted clean site or “bubble” at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

In an accolade filled 2019 season, Jones was named to the All-WNBA Second Team, the All-Defensive Team and a WNBA All-Star for the second time in her four year career.

The Sun finished one game short in their historic run toward a WNBA Championship, but Jones established herself as one of the premier players in the league with her standout season.

In addition to her aforementioned accolades, she finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting and was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week four times.

Jones also won her second rebounding title in four seasons. Jones led the league in rebounds with 9.7 boards and blocked shots at a career-high 2.0 per game. She also finished fourth in defensive rebounds with 6.4 per game. She grabbed 10 or more rebounds 16 times, including a season-high 22 rebounds on May 31.

She finished the regular season with starts in all 34 appearances, averaged 14.6 points, and posted career highs in steals (1.5 per game) and minutes played (28.8 per game). She signed a multi-year contract extension with the Sun in February 2020 as the league’s free agency period commenced.

Despite opting out of the WNBA season, she was a member of UMMC Ekaterinburg Foxes in the Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League and made an immediate impact on the national basketball programme of Bosnia and Herzagovia.

UMMC has advanced to the final of the Russian Premier League. The series opening game against Dynamo Kursk is slated for Friday, April 23.

The Foxes also advanced to the FIBA EuroLeague Final Four. They will face Fenerbahce Oznur Kablo tomorrow (April 16) at 10am local time.

At the national team level, she led Bosnia and Herzegovina to FIBA EuroBasket 2021 qualification for the first time since 1999.