For the first time since 2020, Atlanta Dream beat the Sun
By Jim Fuller
Cheyenne Parker’s game-tying shot hadn’t even fallen through the basket with time running out in the fourth quarter when Allisha Gray sent a message to her Atlanta Dream teammates.
Atlanta was coming off a road win against a New York Liberty team expected to compete for the WNBA title and now the Dream headed to the overtime on a court where victories were hard to come by.
Gray made it clear to everybody within earshot that simply taking the Connecticut Sun to overtime in a hotly contested Thursday night game at Mohegan Sun Arena was not enough.
She implored her team to come out in overtime and take it to the Sun and the Dream did just that en route to a 92-88 victory.
“We wanted to get the win here,” said Gray, who had team-highs with 27 points and 10 rebounds.
Gray had six points in overtime and that included two free throws with 21.9 seconds to play.
She had plenty of help.
Rhyne Howard and Parker had 19 points each, rookie Haley Jones hit some huge baskets in the fourth quarter and finished with 10 points and nine assists. Nia Coffey had seven rebounds,
three assists and three huge blocked shots while Naz Hillmon, Monique Billings and AD Durr combined for 15 points off the bench.
“Two great back to back bounce back wins,” Atlanta head coach Tanisha Wright said. “Watching the growth. It was toughness, having some heart. Nothing else mattered, just coming out and getting the win.”
With Brionna Jones scoring 21 points, Connecticut led by 10 points at halftime. Atlanta came out in the third quarter and scored the first nine points. When Jones hit a jumper and followed that up with a pair of free throws, Atlanta led by five points.
Connecticut came back to take the lead and after a scramble resulted in DeWanna Bonner having a wide-open 3-pointer, the Sun led by two points.
Atlanta had one last chance and after a couple of inbounds passes were deflected out of bounds, Parker got the ball and hit a short jumper with .5 seconds to send the game into overtime.
“We had to come on the road and get some wins,” Wright said after the Dream improved to 4-5. “Getting the first one and now getting the second one, we can’t relax.”
The two wins wrapped up a grueling stretch with two games against New York and Connecticut and one against defending champion Las Vegas.
“We don’t have any other choice but to embrace it,” Wright said. “You want to play the best teams. At the end of the day, you want to see how you measure up against the best teams in the league and we’ve got them five games in a row.”