UNCASVILLE — The odds were stacked against the Connecticut Sun in Friday’s rematch with the Las Vegas Aces, but the young team put up the best fight it has shown all season in a 101-94 loss against the reigning WNBA champions
Barely 48 hours earlier on Wednesday, the Aces routed the Sun 98-69 at Mohegan Sun Arena, and Connecticut coach Rachid Meziane said in his postgame press conference that Las Vegas was simply playing at a level above where the Sun’s young players were able to compete.
On Friday, Connecticut was down both 10-time All-Star Brittney Griner and former UConn standout Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Griner was absent for the second straight game with a foot injury while Nelson-Ododa sat with an ankle injury suffered in the second quarter of Wednesday’s loss, leaving undrafted rookie Raegan Beers as the only true center available. Even spending most of the game at a major size disadvantage, the Sun managed to give the Aces a genuine challenge until the final buzzer.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted, because we always want to win games, but I feel that tonight we have less regrets than two days ago,” Meziane said. “We can be proud of how we fought tonight.”
But with its limited post presence, the Sun couldn’t do anything to slow down four-time reigning MVP A’ja Wilson. The Aces superstar center dropped 45 points, shooting 15-for-18 from the field and 2-for-2 on 3-pointers. It was the highest scoring performance by an opposing player in Sun franchise history, surpassing the 44 scored by Atlanta Dream guard Betty Lennox in a 2008 overtime loss to Connecticut. Wilson also became the first player in WNBA history to log multiple 45-point games in a career.
“I loved the energy, I loved the effort (we had), but A’ja is A’ja, so it’s going to be hard to slow her down especially on a night like this,” Sun guard Saniya Rivers said with a laugh. “But to only lose by seven when A’ja was going off, I think we can live with that, and that’s something we can develop from.”
Rivers was the heart of Connecticut’s performance with her best game of the 2026 season, finishing with 14 points, three rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block. The second-year guard’s night was headlined by a pair of clutch 3-pointers she nailed back-to-back late in the third quarter that drew a reaction so deafening from the 7,265 fans in attendance that it could have been a game winner.
Rookie point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker had the best game of her professional career with 10 points shooting 3-for-5 on top of four assists. Second-year point guard Hailey Van Lith also set a career high with 17 points, shooting 7-for-11 and 3-for-4 on 3-pointers. She also added four assists.
“I think in the past week or so, we’ve learned a lot as a team, and we’ve had a big emphasis on coming in and really trying to play together,” Leger-Walker said. “I’m really proud of the way that we continued to fight, that we didn’t give up, and we had to make adjustments quickly, and we did that, so I’m proud of that.”
With both Griner and Nelson-Ododa out, Meziane overhauled his starting five. Van Lith made the first start of her WNBA career running point, and 2026 first-round pick Gianna Kneepkens earned her first start. Forward Aaliyah Edwards also stepped into the starting lineup in her return from a thigh injury that sidelined her for the first three regular-season games. Rivers came off the bench for the first time this season alongside the team’s leading scorer Aneesah Morrow.
Wilson dominated from the very beginning, hitting five field goals in a row for 11 points less than six minutes into the game. But after Connecticut fell behind by as many as 13, it fought all the way back to within two points of the Aces early in the second quarter. The recovery was fueled the Sun’s young stars: Leger-Walker, Morrow and Rivers put up four points apiece over the first three minutes of the second, and each added an assist on three of the five field goals made during the run.
Wilson and Aces guard Chennedy Carter refused to the let Connecticut continue chipping away, as the pair combined for 32 of the Aces’ 54 points in the first half. Meziane said postgame he felt Beers was intimidated by the matchup against Wilson and didn’t defend with her typical aggression and physicality. The Sun also tried to use Edwards at the five, but Wilson had a significant length advantage, and the former UConn star is still readjusting to game pace after sitting out for more than a week.
Despite a 10-point deficit at the half, the Sun had momentum going into the locker room. They were out-rebounding Vegas 16-13 in the half and had given up just three turnovers, a dramatic improvement from their performance in the first meeting. The team didn’t allow the Aces any second-chance points before halftime and gave up just two on fast breaks.
The teams traded runs constantly in the second half, and the Sun could never quite get over the hump to take a lead. They closed Vegas’s lead to two again amid a hot third-quarter start, putting up six unanswered points, but the Aces fired back ripping off a 7-0 run to reopen it up to double digits. Rivers then powered Connecticut back within two points with a minute left in the third, snagging her first steal of the season and taking it for a layup, then drilling the consecutive 3-pointers.
Wilson’s response proved why she is a four-time MVP. She connected on her first 3-point attempt of the game and added an and-1 seconds later for a solo 6-0 run to put the Sun back down eight at the end of the quarter.
Connecticut’s intensity never wavered, and it continued to make dents in the Aces’ lead through the fourth. Beers drew a clutch and-1 to stifle a Vegas run, and Van Lith went nuclear in the final frame dropping 13 of her 17 points including 10 in the last two minutes. The team simply couldn’t string together enough defensive stops to make the game winnable.
“When you have so many new pieces to a team, it’s going to take a minute to build that chemistry, build that connection, and also just find leadership outside of our vets that we have,” Leger-Walker said. “We’re still trying to find that, but no matter what is thrown at us, we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to bring that energy.”
The Sun finished leading the Aces 32-28 on the boards behind a team-high nine from Morrow, and it also forced 18 turnovers that it converted into 18 points. It allowed half as many transition points Friday as it did in the first meeting, and was only outscored 54-44 in the paint.
“A’ja Wilson is the best player in the world, but we forced her to pay 32 minutes to beat us tonight, so I think that it’s a good step for us,” Meziane said. “I hope that we can build a good foundation off that. We scored 94 points tonight, and that is not something easy to do against the defending champions. We still have to progress for sure, to improve a lot of areas in our game, but we are sure that we can compete.”
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