UNCASVILLE — Los Angeles Sparks forward Azura Stevens only played for a single season with the UConn women’s basketball team in 2017-18, but returning to Connecticut will always feel like coming home.
Mohegan Sun Arena holds fond memories for the former Huskies’ standout, who had some of the best games of her UConn career on the court in Uncasville. She had her first postseason double-double there in the 2018 American Athletic Conference semifinals, with 21 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks in a 54-point rout of Cincinnati. The Huskies went on the win their second consecutive conference championship in the AAC over South Florida.
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Stevens gave the UConn fans in the building a familiar showing when the Sparks faced the Connecticut Sun on Thursday night, opening the scoring with a corner 3-pointer that set the tone for her team. She finished with 17 points to surpass the 2,000 milestone in her career amid her eighth WNBA season.
“It’s always cool coming back here,” Stevens said Thursday. “I love coming back and seeing the fans. I always feel a lot of love when I’m here, so it’s awesome. Those long bus rides from the airport are always reminiscent of when we used to drive up here from campus.”
Stevens, who transferred to UConn after two seasons at Duke, declared a year early for the WNBA Draft and was selected No. 6 overall by the Dallas Wings in 2018, but it took the veteran forward longer than she expected to find her footing in the league.
She missed the majority of the 2019 season to undergo surgery for a foot injury, and she was traded to the Chicago Sky by the Wings that offseason. She then suffered a knee injury in 2020 that forced her to exit the league’s COVID-19 bubble after just 13 games. She was healthy for most of 2021 and ’22 but struggled to find a consistent role in Chicago’s rotation, and a back injury sidelined her for the first five games in 2023 after she signed the with the Sparks as a free agent. She also missed the first half of the 2024 season with an arm injury suffered while playing overseas.
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In 2025 Stevens entered training camp fully healthy and has made it past the All-Star break without missing a single game. That itself is an accomplishment, but Stevens is also having a breakout season on the court in her third year with the Sparks. She is averaging 14.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, two assists and 1.5 steals per game, all of which are career highs, plus 1.3 blocks for her best mark since 2020.
In L.A.’s 101-86 rout of the Sun, Stevens’s performance was highlighted by a 4-for-7 night from 3-point range, and she also added eight rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals.
“She can flat-out shoot it. She can shoot the leather off (the ball),” Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts said. “And she’s really, really smart. That UConn pedigree, she’s never in the wrong place, ever. Defensively, offensively, she knows. She’s just so steady, and as a coach that’s incredibly valuable, just the low-maintenance performer that wants to win more than anything. The lack of attention she gets is kind of head-scratching. I think she deserves more, but I honestly don’t think she cares.”
Roberts is a first-time WNBA coach in 2025, taking over the Sparks after spending the past nine years in the NCAA leading Utah women’s basketball. She said she didn’t watch any film of last year’s L.A. team when she accepted the job and told every player during training camp that they were coming in with a clean slate.
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Stevens quickly earned Roberts’ trust, and the head coach gave her a green light that she’s taken full advantage of this season. She has the second-highest 3-point percentage on the team hitting 41.7% on 4.5 shots per game as a 6-foot-6 center, and she is also one of two Sparks players shooting better than 50% from the field on 10-plus attempts per game.
“I think she’s playing with a ton of confidence, and I’m a big believer in that,” Roberts said. “I’ve just poured confidence into ‘Z,’ and I think what has enabled her is that she’s unbelievably consistent. She shows up every day the same way, and that’s a skill. It’s hard to do, especially with the high pressure and everything of a performance-driven job. It’s hard, but she’s got a maturity to her and just a steady, evenness to her that I think, coupled with playing with a lot of confidence, it’s a good combo.”
Stevens credits Roberts’ unique offensive system with helping her to unlock the best version of herself, creating more opportunities for her to shoot the three than she’s ever had previously. She also pointed to her offseason playing in Unrivaled as a major confidence-builder that’s helped her translate into a bigger role with the Sparks. Stevens was one of 36 WNBA player who competed in the inaugural season of the 3-on-3 league, founded by fellow former UConn stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, and she helped lead her club Rose BC the first-ever Unrivaled championship.
“Three-on-three is a different type of game, so you can’t really pass up on shots. If you’re open, you have to shoot and just take advantage of different mismatches and stuff,” Stevens said. “I’ve always enjoyed 3-on-3, but I think it really helped me to just be more aggressive with the opportunities that I get on the court … I think this year I’ve been really consistent, and that’s been a goal of mine to come out and be a player that everyone can rely on on the team.”
