NEW YORK -- After a close first half, the Connecticut Sun got back to their basics and pulled away from the struggling New York Liberty.

Taj McWilliams-Franklin scored 22 points and Katie Douglas and Lindsay Whalen added 16 apiece to lead the first-place Sun to an 89-71 victory Monday night, handing the Liberty their franchise-record 11th straight loss.

"I thought we got away a little bit from getting the ball inside to Taj in the post," Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said. "You use Katie and Lindsay to run pick-and-rolls. That got us jump-started. Our defense more than anything got us going because we got some fastbreaks."

Asjha Jones had 13 and Erin Phillips 10 to lead Connecticut (18-6) to its fourth straight win. The Sun won their third straight at Madison Square Garden, and improved the league's top road record to 9-4. McWilliams-Franklin shot 11-for-15, tying a career high for made field goals, and Douglas had a season-high six assists.

"It's just really lucky that I'm on a great team and I get the ball in situations I can score," McWilliams-Franklin said. "I'm just thankful to be in a position to do it. I know my game. I'm confident in what I can do for this team."

Cathrine Kraayeveld had career highs with 22 points and 10 rebounds and Erin Thorn added 19 points -- including buzzer-beating 3-pointers at the end of the first and third quarters -- for New York (4-20). The Liberty matched expansion Chicago for the league's worst home record at 2-9.

Douglas -- back at the Garden for the first time since scoring 16 points and earning MVP honors in the All-Star Game on July 12 -- expected a strong game from the Liberty, who were coming off a franchise-worst 91-54 loss to Seattle on Saturday.

"We knew the Liberty were going to play us tough," Douglas said. "There is a lot of tradition in New York. Today they played us tough, but we fought through it."

Connecticut, which led by five at halftime, used a 10-2 run -- keyed by two 3s from Douglas -- to take a 57-46 lead midway through the third quarter. Douglas made three free throws and Jamie Carey hit a jumper to give the Sun a 15-point lead with 16 seconds left.

"We did the things we needed to do and made better adjustments in the second half," Thibault said. "We got good performances from a lot of people."

Thorn threw up a two-handed, over-the-head shot from beyond half court just before the buzzer to pull New York to 68-56.

"We just have to get some stops," Liberty coach Pat Coyle said. "We have to clamp down. I think we're beginning to understand that. It's something we've been fighting with all year. We played with a lot of energy tonight."

Phillips' 3 with 7:14 left in the game gave Connecticut its biggest lead at 77-58. Her second 3 matched the 19-point advantage 3½ minutes later.

Becky Hammon, New York's leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, missed her sixth straight contest because of a sprained left ankle. Leading rebounder Kelly Schumacher is out for the rest of the season after spraining the medial collateral ligament in her right knee last Thursday in Sacramento.

Thorn, getting some extended playing time with Hammon out, is averaging 19.7 points the last three games.

"She's getting a chance to play and she's making the most of it," Coyle said. "This is the third or fourth game that she's played terrific in. She has also kept us in games because of how well she's played."

Douglas hit a 3 and Carey made two free throws to push Connecticut's lead to 30-17 at the start of the second quarter.

The Liberty went on a 13-3 run and pulled to 37-35 on Kraayeveld's jumper with 3:26 left. The Sun scored eight of the next 11 points before Thorn hit a running hook shot to cut New York's deficit to 45-40 at halftime.

New York faced a big early deficit for the second straight game, as Whalen had eight points to help Connecticut take a 22-7 lead with about 2½ minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Kraayeveld, whose previous best was 18 points against Charlotte on June 27, scored seven straight points over the next 1:33 to pull the Liberty within eight. Thorn hit a 3-pointer as time expired to get New York within eight again at 25-17.

The WNBA's record single-season losing streak is 13, set by the Sky this season and Detroit in 2002. The defunct Portland Fire own the all-time mark for consecutive defeats, losing 14 straight from July 27, 2001, to June 3, 2002.