UNCASVILLE — It doesn’t matter how hard you push when running on empty. Sooner or later, you’re going to reach the breaking point.
Coming off a dramatic overtime victory over the Washington Mystic on Thursday, the Connecticut Sun ran out of gas down the stretch on Friday against the Atlanta Dream, losing 78-74.
Since starting the season 13-1, the Sun have now lost three of their last four games.
“It’s disappointing, certainly… when you’re playing the second half of a back-to-back, execution has to be paramount,” Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White said after the game. “And (Atlanta) did a better job of executing in that second half.”
“They attacked us, I thought they used multiple on-ball screening (actions), and our point of attack wasn’t as good as it needed to be,” White said. “Got us in rotation a little bit (and got Atlanta) some rhythm threes. We had missed opportunities in terms of how we were executing our ball screen defense, which I think automatically put us under duress and (Atlanta) took advantage.”
Connecticut (14-4) remains second in the East despite the loss and will be looking to get back on track when the Sun hit the road again to take on the Phoenix Mercury (8-8) on Monday, July 1 at 10 p.m.
A back-and-forth affair throughout, with 16 lead changes and neither team could push their lead above five points. Both defenses did well to break the other team’s flow on offense, preventing either side from breaking out a big run.
DeWanna Bonner struggled from the field, shooting just 4-14 from the field but made eight free throws to finish with a team-high 17 points. DiJonai Carrington had 15 points in support while Alyssa Thomas had 14 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
Carrington remains in good form from beyond the arc, shooting three-for-six from the perimeter. This a strong follow-up to her 22-point performance against the Mystics when she hit a season-high four threes off nine attempts, after making just six of her first 31 attempts through the first 16 games of the season.
“I know I could shoot the ball,” Carrington said. “I definitely obviously was in (a) slump, I probably made more threes the last two games than I had the whole season.
“I started my count over when I cut my nails, I told y‘all that (after playing the Indiana Fever on June 10)… sometimes you gotta not try to be too cute.”
