Sun heading for finals; West tied

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Taj McWilliams-Franklin burst into tears at the buzzer, her emotions finally getting the best of her.

The Connecticut Sun are heading to the WNBA Finals for first time.

Her 18 points and nine rebounds Sunday led the Sun to a 60-57 win over the New York Liberty for a two-game sweep of the Eastern Conference finals.

An original member of the Orlando Miracle, McWilliams-Franklin went 1-of-2 at the line with 48 seconds left to give the Sun a 55-54 edge. New York was denied a fifth trip to the championship series.

"It's been seven long years for me," McWilliams-Franklin said. "It's remarkable. All I was thinking was to try and get some rebounds and get some extra opportunities to score."

The Sun squandered plenty of scoring chances early on, missing open layups off their transition game. But McWilliams-Franklin kept them in the game with time running out. She had a key defensive board with less than 1 1/2 minutes left that led to a fastbreak layup by rookie guard Lindsay Whalen to make it 54-all.

"I thought she kind of willed us to win between her rebounding and her help on defense," Sun coach Mike Thibault said. "In the end, she was the one person who stepped up and kept making shots around the basket. I think her teammates knew they could ride her back."

Katie Douglas extended Connecticut's lead to 59-54 by hitting all four of her free throws down the stretch. New York had three turnovers in the final seconds but countered with a 3-pointer from former Utah Starzz player Elena Baranova with 1.7 seconds left. Whalen sealed victory by making a free throw with 0.6 seconds left. New York was unable to get a shot off before the buzzer.

"Their defense was good, but I thought our execution was poor at the end," Liberty interim coach Pat Coyle said. "Down the stretch that can't happen."

Douglas finished with 14 points for the Sun, while Whalen and Nykesha Sales added 11 apiece. Vickie Johnson led New York with 19 points and Crystal Robinson added 11.

The Sun had posted three straight double-digit playoff victories coming in to the game, but never had much of a cushion on Sunday.

"I knew since we beat them in New York it was going to be a dogfight here," Whalen said. "They're a championship team. They've been to the finals a lot. They're not going to go down without a fight."

There were 16 lead changes and neither team led by more than five points.