CONNECTICUT SUN 76, CHARLOTTE STING 71

The Charlotte Sting put up a tough fight at Mohegan Sun Arena on Thursday as they battled the top team in the Eastern Conference, the Connecticut Sun. Charlotte, who has struggled to put together a full 40 minutes of basketball this season, kept the Sun within striking distance throughout the contest. In the end, clutch free throw shooting by Connecticut down the stretch, doomed the Sting as the Sun escaped with a narrow 76-71 win.

Trailing by just four heading into the final quarter of play, Charlotte took advantage of a three-point bucket followed by a three-point play by Kelly Mazzante to tie the score at 53. Connecticut pushed their lead back to seven, before the Sting reeled off five straight points, capped by a three-pointer from Helen Darling, to pull back to within two.

With under two minutes to play, Tangela Smith sank a turnaround jump shot to tie the score at 66. That's when Connecticut, the top free throw shooting team in the league, began to take advantage of their prowess from the charity stripe. Lindsay Whalen knocked down two free throws to give the Sun back the lead.

The two teams took turns scoring as Sheri Sam connected on a driving layup and Whalen knocked down two more free throws to make the score 70-68 with 1:07 remaining. A jump shot by Smith tied the score at 70 before Dydek connected on two more free throws to give the Sun a lead they would not relinquish. On the next possession, Sam connected on just one of two foul shots while on the other end Whalen connected on two more shots from the charity stripe to push the lead to three.

A steal by Katie Douglas gave the ball back to the Sun and Megan Mahoney iced the game with two more shots from the charity stripe.

The Sting held the Sun to just 4-13 shooting in the fourth quarter but Connecticut shot a perfect 17-17 from the free throw line in the period as they outscored the Sting 24-10 from the foul line in the contest.

Smith led the way for the Sting with 17 points while Tammy Sutton-Brown added 13 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals for the Sting. Sam (12) and Mazzante (10) also finished in double-figures for Charlotte while Helen Darling dished out a season-best eight assists.

Whalen, behind eight points in the fourth quarter, paced Connecticut with 20 points and five assists while Dydek added 13 points and nine rebounds for the Sun.

The Sun jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on the Sting and led the entire way but were never able to pull away as their largest lead was the seven-point advantage in the fourth quarter.

The Sting continue their three-game road trip in Los Angeles on Saturday as they face the Sparks at 10:30 p.m.

HEAD COACH MUGGSY BOGUES SAYS... (On tonight’s loss) The ball didn’t bounce our way in the end. We came out and played hard. They stayed true to the game plan and we had opportunities to win the game. (On Lindsay Whalen) She had a good day today. She came out and hit her free throws. She runs that team exceptionally well. (On what to take away from tonight’s game) Take away the positive things that took place today. We had contributions from a lot of players and we have to go out and play against Sacramento and L.A. and we have to come and compete for forty minutes. INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM TAMMY SUTTON-BROWN (On tonight’s loss) I think today’s game was a good game. We came out and played hard and need to feed off of it headingon the road. Connecticut is a good team and they played well. (On Head Coach Bogues) Coach always tells us always just to play basketball. We just need to feed off of each other. (On the team) We have a great team and need to continue playing like we did tonight and well be in a lot of games. TANGELA SMITH (On tonight’s loss) It was very disappointing. We don’t have too many wins and this would have been a great win. We can’t say we didn’t have the effort. (On the reason for the loss) We didn’t take care of the ball, turnovers, free throws and missed box outs. (On the rest of season) We just need to stay positive and keep our heads up. We'll eventually get a win.

July 6, 2006 Team 1 2 3 4 TOT CHA 15 16 16 24 71 CON 17 18 16 25 76 STAR OF THE GAME TAMMY SUTTON-BROWN 13 points 7 rebounds 3 steals 3 blocks SUB OF THE GAME KELLY MAZZANTE 10 points 4 rebounds 4 steals STAT OF THE GAME FREE THROWS MADE Charlotte - 10 Connecticut - 24 HUSTLE BOARD Team REB STL BLK TOT CHA 30 12 6 48 CON 36 10 9 55