CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Taj McWilliams-Franklin scored 16 points and Katie Douglas added 13 as the Connecticut Sun beat the Charlotte Sting 68-62 Saturday, completing a sweep of the best-of-three Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Shannon Johnson finished with eight assists as Connecticut, formerly the Orlando Miracle, advanced to the conference finals against either Detroit or Cleveland.

“This gives our players the faith that we are going in the right direction.” Sun coach Mike Thibault said.

Andrea Stinson scored 16 of her game-high 25 points in the second half for Charlotte, which shot 37 percent and lost its sixth straight playoff game dating to the 2001 WNBA Finals. “We had our chances, but the shots weren’t falling for us,” Stinson said. “There are some things we need to work on, but we’ll be back.”

Charlotte trimmed a 17-point halftime deficit to 62-56 on a three-point play by Stinson with 1:43 left. Connecticut’s Brooke Wyckoff countered with a 3-pointer with 1:10 remaining.

The Sting pulled within six on Allison Feaster’s 3-pointer with 54.6 seconds remaining, before Johnson’s driving layup made it 67-59 with 29.4 seconds to go.

“We just didn’t have enough at the end to turn it around,” Sting coach Trudi Lacey said. “We wanted to get the deficit under 10 earlier in the half, but it just didn’t happen that way. This is a very disappointing.”

Feaster shot 3-for-11 and finished with nine points. Point guard Dawn Staley missed five of her six shots.

Connecticut charged to an 18-7 lead and built a 40-23 advantage by halftime on the strength on 52-percent shooting.

AP-ES-08-30-03 1901EDT