{"id":148522,"date":"2025-09-11T08:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/148522\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T08:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:32:08","slug":"connecticut-sun-drop-final-game-of-the-season-but-optimistic-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/148522\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Sun drop final game of the season, but optimistic of the future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"XEQHEFBOPBDHVP2AD776LS2D4U\">UNCASVILLE, Conn. \u2014 Despite ending the season with a loss, the Connecticut Sun can look towards the future with hope for the near future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"OWOZP4WXR5CTXCGWGJBUQGXSIA\">The 2025 WNBA season came to an end for the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday with an 88-72 loss to the Atlanta Dream. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"CNHXL342PNHJ5BR6YUKSMTMDJE\">The Sun fell behind early in the first quarter and quickly found themselves trailing by double-digits. The visitors pulled away late in the first, riding a 17-2 run to take an 18-point lead into the second. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"EJXK4RD5IFATTID4625DA67OPA\">The deficit only grew in the second quarter as the Dream added to their advantage. Atlanta led by as many as 24 in the first half, holding Connecticut to under 30% from the field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"6JRENXCOVBG5DLB2CPFOX7C7HI\">The Sun clawed their way back into the game behind a valiant third-quarter effort from Saniya Rivers, who scored nine of her 16 points to help cut the deficit to single digits. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"BGOQHWNJRNHNPJTLUKXMDG3OKQ\">Connecticut used a 14-2 run to get within striking distance, trailing by nine with just three minutes remaining in the quarter. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"CQ42RJLTCREPDD4DRUBAQBGQAU\">But the Sun could not keep up the momentum and the Dream\u2019s lead climbed above 10 heading into the fourth and never came back down. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"QYBWZFUPEFAW7JHFT3BT2VAJXI\">\u201cWe didn\u2019t give (ourselves) an opportunity to win the game, starting like that,\u201d Connecticut Sun coach Rachid Meziane said after the game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"6FQMAKQP7ZH43MDPZMRZTNWQ5Y\">\u201cI appreciate the reaction of my players (and) my team in the second quarter and third quarter&#8230; we wanted to finish the season with one win, unfortunately we could not get this win. But this season has been a long journey with lots of ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"3P2AXM3RVZFCRDVF6WTRXUSAP4\">The Sun finish the 2025 season with an 11-33 record, the worst regular season record in franchise history by winning percentage (.250). The team also experienced its longest losing streak in franchise history (10) and will miss the WNBA Playoffs for the first time since 2016. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"POEH34L7QZFYZNIA4VTPYCLEUM\">But despite the struggles of the entire season, the future of the franchise looks bright. The Sun were 8-14 after the All-Star break, highlighted by a three-game win streak in late August. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"G2XZQ2EBMBGKPEG3VZXQH7NQOA\">The growth and progress of Connecticut\u2019s first-round draft picks Saniya Rivers and Aneesah Mitchell over the year, in addition to the mid-season additions of Le\u00efla Lacan and Aliyah Edwards, have given the Sun a young core to build around for the future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"GWWWH2RESZH4PJIXHNX2TPKY54\">\u201cWe will be more prepared (next season),\u201d Meziane said. \u201cWe cannot buy experience, but I do think that what our young players did this year, we\u2019ll put them in a better situation and I\u2019ll be ready to start the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"SYRTELIIKVBI5NSHDHMKZ2A4ZE\">\u201cI\u2019m very excited to start the next season because I know that we are going to do better and I will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/user-agreement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/privacy-policy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNCASVILLE, Conn. \u2014 Despite ending the season with a loss, the Connecticut Sun can look towards the future&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-148522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}