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Liberty-Sun Preview

Sep 3, 2009 - 7:38 PM By ANDY LEFKOWITZ STATS Editor

New York (12-18) at Connecticut (14-17), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Time is running out on the Connecticut Sun and New York Liberty if they want to play in the postseason.

The Sun look to snap a season-high five-game losing streak when they host the last-place Liberty on Friday night.

Connecticut's skid has dropped it into sixth in the East, and it is battling Washington and defending WNBA champion Detroit for the conference's final two playoff spots.

The Sun (14-17) fell to 2-1 against New York this season Aug. 21, losing 85-83 in overtime at Madison Square Garden to split a home-and-home series.

The Liberty's Janel McCarville made a tiebreaking layup with 8.2 seconds left in the extra period and finished with 22 points and a career-best 13 rebounds. Sandrine Gruda led Connecticut with career highs of 24 points and 12 boards.

Each of Connecticut's five consecutive losses came by double digits, the most recent a 90-70 defeat to league-worst Sacramento on Tuesday that closed an 0-4 road trip.

Ashja Jones, the Sun's leading scorer with 16.7 points per game, missed her eighth straight contest with an Achilles' injury. Coach Mike Thibault said she will probably miss the remainder of the season, making the job of getting to the postseason that much tougher.

"We need to get home, get some rest and regroup," Thibault said. "Then we'll see how we respond to our last three games."

Following Friday's contest, the Sun have a week off before closing out the season at Atlanta and at home against East-leading Indiana.

New York (12-18) has alternated wins and losses in its last four games and is coming off a 65-58 home defeat to Seattle on Tuesday. Cathrine Kraayeveld had 14 points and eight rebounds, and rookie center Kia Vaughn scored 11 for the Liberty.

"We put them on the free-throw line and down the stretch we gave up some key offensive rebounds, which can't happen," said New York's Shameka Christon, who finished with a season-low seven points on 2-for-15 shooting. "It was a combination of the two. It was (frustrating) especially because of what's at stake and ... what we wanted to do was to keep our playoff hopes alive."

New York will host Indiana, travel to Detroit and return home to face Washington to finish the season.