The Sun certainly played like the WNBA’s lone unbeaten team on Sunday.
Connecticut took a 22-10 second-quarter advantage and ran with it en route to a 69-50 victory over the Atlanta Dream at Gateway Center Arena.
The Sun (8-0) led by as many as 22 points and handed Atlanta (4-3) its most lopsided loss of the season.
“I feel like we’re a much better team than what we showed today,” Dream coach Tanisha Wright said. “We let our offense dictate our defense at times. I thought it killed our confidence at times. We missed some easy shots. We were getting great looks – looks that we want. Especially in the first half.”
It was a competitive first quarter and both teams were knotted at 17 after 10 minutes.
Connecticut missed its first six 3-pointers until DeWanna Bonner’s triple with 4:30 in the second quarter got the Sun going from long range. Connecticut hit its next two 3-point attempts which helped it to a double-digit lead and the Sun took a 39-27 advantage into halftime.
“The first quarter we got good looks and we were able to stay within,” Wright said. “We kept telling them ‘We’re moving the ball, we’re getting good looks but they’re not falling right now. Let’s play inside-outside.’ We came out the second quarter and it was jump shot, jump shot, jump shot. It was literally everything that we said not to be doing. It was one pass [and a] shot.”
Atlanta made 19 of its 67 field goal attempts (28.4%) and the Dream was led by Tina Charles who had a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds. Guards Rhyne Howard (2 of 9) and Haley Jones (1 of 6) combined for seven points.
“They were good looks, they just weren’t falling for us,” Wright said. “If our guards are getting great looks, we’ll take them. When they’re knocking [shots] down, they should continue to take them. We just weren’t knocking them down tonight. Rhyne got some great looks today that she normally knocks down. She didn’t knock them down tonight. Then we have to play a different way. Our energy was terrible on the offensive end because we weren’t making shots.”
Connecticut tallied a 28 of 66 (42.4%) shooting rate led by Bonner’s game-high 18 points. Bonner was 8 of 15 overall and 2 of 4 from distance and she completed her double-double with 10 rebounds. Tayasha Harris hit three 3-pointers and tallied 13 points and DiJonai Carrington had 15 points.
“They had some easy looks that they were knocking down,” Aerial Powers said. “That’s where heart comes in, just forcing them to make harder shots and boxing out and not letting them get second-chance points.”
Forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus got picked up two early personal fouls and played just 13 minutes. She was 2 of 5 with four points.
“We’re not going to win a lot of games with Cheyenne only getting five shots,” Wright said. “A lot of that has to do with being on the court. She only played 13 minutes. Typically, CP comes out the first three or four minutes. She played her normal first three or four minutes for the rest of the game she only played seven minutes. That’s tough. She’s one of our better players. We need her on the floor so we can play the way we want to play.”
Connecticut dominated the boards with a 45-33 advantage and Alyssa Thomas led the way in the category with 14. The Sun had seven offensive rebounds.
“Obviously it’s a little bit easier to rebound shots that aren’t going through the basket,” Naz Hillmon said. “We weren’t making our shots so they were cleaning up really well and trying to make sure we didn’t get extra opportunities. Those matter when your shots aren’t falling. I think a lot of that came down to them boxing out after we missed our shots.”
Rough singular quarters have snake-bitten the Dream in two of its three losses this year. In a May 26 loss to the Lynx, the Dream was outscored 26-12 in the third quarter. Atlanta was not outscored by more than three points in any other quarter of the contest.
“We [have to] go back to the drawing board,” Wright said. “Our challenge is being consistent. As coaches we have to continue to talk to them and coach them up. We’ll go and coach these things. We’ll show them the areas where we weren’t great. When we show them, we show them the good and the areas [where we need] growth.
Atlanta has three days off before the New York Liberty come to town on Thursday and the teams are set for a 7:30 p.m. bout.
“It’s really tough,” Wright said of the Dream’s schedule. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the defending champs or if it’s the best team in the league. Then you have New York and we go to Chicago. At some point we got Indy. Every single [opponent] is going to be tough. If you want to win games in this league, the best teams – night in and night out – are consistent.”
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