BOSTON — Brionna Jones rushed the court late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks and wrestled the ball from Li Yueru. With the Connecticut Sun trailing by two points, Jones managed to throw the ball to teammate Ty Harris, who flew across the court and attempted a layup over her defender. Harris missed, but teammate Alyssa Thomas fought her way through the offensive boards, put the ball back in the basket and drew the foul.

The crowd cheered and Thomas’ free throw put the Sun ahead for good. The cheering grew even louder as Connecticut made one tough play after another on defense, ending the night with a 14-2 run that secured a 69-61 victory.

As the Sun pulled away, chants of “Beat LA” echoed through the arena, and joyous boos followed after Sparks coach Curt Miller was ejected from the field 90 seconds before the final whistle.

In those final minutes, it was easy to forget that the Sun were playing in another state, about 100 miles from their home arena.

A sold-out crowd of 19,125 packed the TD Garden, home of the Celtics and Bruins, to watch the Sun and Sparks play their first WNBA game in Boston. It was the third-highest attended WNBA game of the record-breaking, landmark season and the highest attended meeting in Sun franchise history.

“It was a great feeling,” said guard DiJonai Carrington. “It was the feeling every night should feel.”

Sun coach Stephanie White added: “I’m really grateful. Our team and our players deserve this and they had the opportunity to experience it. We’ve experienced it sometimes on the road, but not in front of 19,000 fans at a home game. It was just a lot of fun.”

Announced in December, the game was an opportunity for the Uncasville, Connecticut-based Sun to expand its presence to another part of New England. Connecticut has been one of the league’s most consistent teams in recent years, reaching the semifinals of the playoffs each of the last five seasons despite being based in a smaller market.

But Boston was the hottest place in the WNBA on Tuesday night. The franchise announced Friday that the stadium was sold out. The team hosted several events for youth and fans in the days leading up to the game. On Tuesday morning, fans stopped DeWanna Bonner and Thomas as they walked through town and wished them luck. Hours before the game, a lively street party was in place outside the Garden. Celtics stars Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum sat courtside during the game.

“People weren’t here at halftime,” said Carrington, who led the team in scoring with 19 points. “They were here two hours before the game, excited, ready. … I certainly hope this isn’t the last time a women’s game is here, especially for our team.”

Thomas added, “I’ve been in Connecticut for 11 years and we have a great fan base there. But at the same time, you see the possibilities of what could potentially be.”

The Sun have brought their home court from Uncasville and will play under the Boston championship banners of the Garden. The Sun, who have reached the WNBA Finals twice in the last five years but are still looking for their first championship, hope to win one of their own after this season.

“All the sports teams here are winning championships. Hopefully that will rub off on us and we can win one in October,” Carrington said.

The second-place Sun led by as many as 11 points but had great difficulty defeating the 11th-place Sparks, who made a late run to take a four-point lead with 4:15 left.

Then Connecticut — which hit a paltry 38.4 percent of its shots — went all out on defense, using its energy to score in transition and scoring 14 unanswered points. The Sparks ultimately allowed the Sun to score 20 points on 22 turnovers.

“We had attacking periods where we didn’t score goals, but the crowd was always there,” Carrington said. “They sang the whole game. They gave us energy. I think they gave us that little push at the end of the game to finish strong.”

White added, “It’s incredible. It speaks to our continued growth as a league. It speaks to women’s basketball fans here in New England and sports fans in New England in general. They are passionate about their sport.”

The game itself was perhaps more uneven than the Sun, who are still in the process of adding recent transfer signing Marina Mabrey to their team, had hoped. In this context, the experienced Bonner came off the bench for the first time since 2016 at her suggestion to the coaching staff, allowing the team to experiment with different formations.

The Sun will soon go back to the drawing board, but will not lose sight of what was considered a special night for both the franchise and the league.

White, a former WNBA player who has been involved in both college football and the league for decades, said she had tears in her eyes when the team’s introduction video was shown on the big screen just before the game began, a feeling she hadn’t experienced since she coached the team in Game 5 of the Finals against the Indiana Fever.

“This is something I will never forget,” White said. “I hope our players won’t either.”