Associated Press

Sandrine Gruda added 11 points for Connecticut (10-9), which moved into tie with Washington for second place in the Eastern Conference - five games behind Indiana.

The win came after the Sun, playing for the fourth time in six days, lost 84-72 at Chicago on Saturday night.

"That's a really a big win," Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said. "We had a 4:30 wake-up call this morning. It says something to come out the way we did."

Deanna Nolan scored 20 points and Cheryl Ford had nine points and 10 rebounds for sixth-place Detroit (6-10).

"Connecticut came out and, basically, hit us in the mouth," Shock coach Rick Mahorn said. "They didn't look like they played a back-to-back. They came out and executed and we didn't execute defensively."

Thibault changed his lineup by inserting guards Tan White and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota into the starting five. He also said Whalen hadn't been shooting well, but she bounced back with a 9-for-16 performance.

"We were just trying to be really aggressive," Whalen said. "The last week or so we've been in a little rough patch of our season. We just wanted to come out aggressively tonight and get us into our sets quick."

Thibault poined to two keys two keys to the Sun's strong start.

"Defensively, in the first half, we were great and we didn't turn it over," he said.

The Sun led 50-33 at halftime, matching their biggest lead of the first half, and stretched the advantage to 24 on White's 3-pointer with 6:51 left in the third quarter.

"There was no defense," Nolan said. "They got any shot they wanted. We needed to get stops. ... It didn't get done. ... We need to get back to playing Shock defense."