Down by one with 8.5 seconds left, Bridget Carleton inbounded the ball to Napheesa Collier, who took a couple of dribbles, stopped with two defenders near her and kicked the ball back out to Carleton.

From 34 feet away, her 3-pointer found nothing but net with 3.4 ticks left, and the Minnesota Lynx beat Connecticut 78-76 Tuesday night in Uncasville, Conn., and locked up the second seed for the WNBA playoffs that begin Sunday.

“There’s so much joy and so exciting. It was a really deep shot, so it was really fun. It was stressful,” said Collier, who led Minnesota with 25 points.

And it was the final basket in a game that featured eight lead changes in the final 2:25 and four in the final 22.9 seconds.

“It’s kind of the epitome of the season for her like she just kind of deserves something like that to happen to her. Really special,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.

A candidate for the league’s most improved player, Carleton has transitioned from a bench player to starting all but four games. Wont to pass up good shots in prior seasons, she has gone from scoring 3.2 points in 15.1 minutes per game in 2023 to 9.7 points in almost 30 minutes per game this season.

Carleton, who finished with 13 points, is knocking down 44.7% of her 3-point shots, making 13 of 20 in her past four games, including three of four Tuesday. She was not made available for the postgame Zoom.

“BC works so hard for us, she does everything we ask every single night. She’s also one of the best people you’ll ever meet,” Collier said. “She just said it was her first game winner, which is really exciting. Such a great teammate, person, ball player. So to have her win the game for us in such a way like this, it’s an amazing feeling we all have for her.”

Minnesota (30-9) has won seven straight and 13 of 14 since the Olympic break. And it was the second on the road over a top-three team in three days after winning 88-79 on Sunday at New York (32-7).

Finishing in the top two guarantees home-court advantage for the first two rounds of playoff action. The Lynx are 16-3 at Target Center this season.

And finishing second means facing Phoenix — 3-7 in its last 10 entering Tuesday — in the best-of-three first round. The Lynx are 3-1 against the Mercury this season.

“Staying connected has been a testament to why we are where we are right now, problem solving together, never anybody pointing fingers,” said Kayla McBride. “That becomes a lot of fun, because then you’re just competing your (rears) off for 40 minutes and hopefully you end up on top. That’s what we’re doing, and we’re having a lot of fun doing it.”

The Lynx finish the regular season at home Thursday against seven-win Los Angeles.

“It’s safe to say we’re certainly not going to run these guys into the ground,” Reeve said of the starters.

The Lynx led by 12 late in the third quarter, and a 3-point play by Alanna Smith gave Minnesota a 69-62 lead with 4:01 left. But Connecticut scored 12 of the next 16 points and led 74-73 with 22.9 seconds to play.

Collier hit a fadeaway with 12.8 seconds left to put the Lynx back up by one, but a cutting layup by DeWanna Bonner four seconds later gave the Sun (27-12) a one-point lead. Then came a Minnesota time out that led to a fantastic finish.

McBride scored 14 points and had seven rebounds. Courtney Williams had eight points and dished out a season-high 12 assists.

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