{"id":32167,"date":"2025-07-23T21:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T21:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/32167\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T21:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T21:39:07","slug":"ct-sun-hope-to-turn-season-around-as-marina-mabrey-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/32167\/","title":{"rendered":"CT Sun hope to turn season around as Marina Mabrey returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNCASVILLE \u2014 The Connecticut Sun<\/a> entered the season prepared for a rebuilding year, expecting that the team\u2019s longstanding residence in the top half of the WNBA standings would be almost impossible to maintain after reconstructing their roster from scratch.<\/p>\n

General manager Morgan Tuck<\/a> didn\u2019t foresee the squad entering the second half of the season with just three wins, but the former UConn star said no one is hitting the panic button inside the building. As much as gut instinct might call for radical changes amid the worst start in franchise history, Tuck said the Sun entered 2025 with a plan that they\u2019re committed to following regardless of how their record looks with the league\u2019s Aug. 3 trade deadline<\/a> approaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot that I would say we need to improve on, but I think the biggest thing is that we knew this year was going to be a struggle,\u201d Tuck said. \u201cObviously we want to see the wins come and you want to look at all the options that you always do especially coming to the deadline, but I think we\u2019re also very bought into the youth of our team and understanding that the wins might not be there, but I\u2019m still very optimistic in what our team can become.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecticut also might\u2019ve found more success early on if it weren\u2019t for the extended absence of Marina Mabrey<\/a>. The star guard suffered a left knee injury late in the second quarter when Sun hosted the Dallas Wings on June 20, and though she returned to play the second half of that matchup, she was ruled out for two to four weeks four days later. She missed nine games because of the injury, and the team went 1-8 during that stretch.<\/p>\n

Mabrey is probable to return in Connecticut\u2019s first game since the break against the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Sun\u2019s lone win without Mabrey came on July 9 against the Seattle Storm, snapping a 10-game losing streak that set a record for the longest in franchise history. The team lost by an average margin of 20 points during that slump, but in the last four games before the All-Star break it lose three times by an average of just 8.6 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have someone (out) that\u2019s as impactful as Marina, who plays almost the whole game every game, it provides a lot of opportunity for other people that they get to step up, play more minutes,\u201d Tuck said. \u201cI know Marina hates it. She hates being out, and it kills her a little bit, but I think it\u2019s also been good for some of our young guards to get a feel for what it\u2019s like to have to step up and make plays, be locked in on defense \u2026 But we\u2019re very excited that Marina\u2019s coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to pinpoint what sparked the improvement, because the win over Seattle came in the team\u2019s second game with standout rookie Leila Lacan<\/a> on the floor. The 21-year-old guard, who was originally selected by the Sun in the first round of the 2024 WNBA Draft, spent the first half of the 2025 season back home in France competing with her national team in EuroBasket, and she established herself as an impact player as soon as she set foot on American soil.<\/p>\n

Lacan logged eight points, four rebounds and three assists with a single turnover in just 19 minutes against the Storm, and her playing rapidly ramped up after that. She scored a career-high 19 points with three steals in the Sun\u2019s heartbreaker against the Indiana Fever on July 15, and the rookie is also spending most of her time on the court guarding the opponent\u2019s best player. She held Fever superstar Caitlin Clark without a field goal for three and a half quarters in front of 19,156 fans at TD Garden, and 14-year veteran Tina Charles gushed after the game about Lacan\u2019s instant fit with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s adjusted tremendously, like no other player that I\u2019ve seen come to a team in the middle of the season,\u201d Charles said last week. \u201cShe\u2019s been doing this for a long time overseas, and now you all are able to witness her greatness. I know her future is bright in this league, and I\u2019m very thankful and honored to be able to be able to take the floor with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions about Connecticut Sun\u2019s future loom large over sellout at Boston\u2019s TD Garden<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Lacan currently has the best offensive and defensive rating on the roster of any player averaging at least 10 minutes per game, and she is second in effective field goal percentage despite shooting just 18.8% from 3-point range. But she has yet to share the court with Mabrey, so the challenge for the Sun coming out of the All-Star break will be to readjust and build chemistry in the new lineup.<\/p>\n

Connecticut also added another member French national team to the roster during the break, signing 30-year-old guard Migna Tour\u00e9<\/a> to a seven-day contract on Monday. Tour\u00e9 has competed professionally in France since 2012, and though she has never appeared in a WNBA game, she got her first taste of the league participating in the Golden State Valkyries\u2019 training camp this season. She\u2019ll make her debut after just three days of practice in Connecticut against the Sparks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when we\u2019re just looking at the trend that we\u2019re on, I think that we\u2019re making some progress, so you want people that can obviously fit into the system, that can bring some defensive energy,\u201d Tuck said. \u201cShe\u2019s been a pro for a long time, so I think just watching and seeing what we needed, we felt like we needed a guard with some size and athleticism and she was the one that fit the most \u2026 We\u2019re making little tweaks and things as needed, but this year is about resetting and making some progress, and I think that our second half of the season will look a little different than the first.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to watch Connecticut Sun vs Los Angeles Sparks<\/p>\n

Site: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville<\/p>\n

Time\/date: 7 p.m., Wednesday<\/p>\n

Team records: Sun 3-19, Sparks 9-14<\/p>\n

Last meeting: 92-88 Sparks, July 13 in Los Angeles<\/p>\n

TV: NBC Sports Boston<\/p>\n

Streaming: WNBA League Pass<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNCASVILLE \u2014 The Connecticut Sun entered the season prepared for a rebuilding year, expecting that the team\u2019s longstanding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[27040,2000,4384,15861,15862,27038,983,3029,12816,27039,27043,27037,27044,27041,99,27042,434,12141,2088],"class_list":["post-32167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aneesah-morrow","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-ct-news","tag-hartford-courant","tag-leila-lacan","tag-local-news","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-marina-mabrey","tag-migna-toure","tag-mohegan-sun-arena","tag-morgan-tuck","tag-rachid-meziane","tag-saniya-rivers","tag-sports","tag-tina-charles","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-all-star","tag-womens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32167","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=32167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}