The closeness of the game, perhaps the frustration and fatigue of a losing streak, the excitement of the crowd, all brought out a side of Rachid Meziane we haven’t often seen.
Whatever he said, the refs didn’t pardon his French and Meziane was T’d up for the first time as a WNBA coach.
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“We fight for one another, we have each other’s backs,” Aneesah Morrow said. “And if our coach is frustrated, we on the court have to defend him and be frustrated as well. That’s what it comes down to, being disciplined defensively, taking care of the ball offensively, running plays and executing them. Because he’s showing his passion, we have to continue to show ours.”
The Sun showed a certain resolve in the second half Saturday, regained and retained control of the game and defeated the LA Sparks, 84-81, in the franchise’s first game in Hartford since 2003. The crowd, announced as 10,478 — which appeared reasonably accurate — responded at all the right moments and the players, dribbling on their home court, dismantled and trucked up from Mohegan Sun, played as if they were right at home after 12 days and five games on the road.
“I like the way my team, my players showed up,” Meziane said. “So I hope we can build some confidence.”
CT Sun rally to beat Los Angeles Sparks, 84-81, in return to Hartford
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For the second season in a row, the Sun are trying to climb out of a deep hole in the standings. For the second season in a row, their best guard, Leila Lecan, returned from her season in France, where she was MVP, and immediately made her WNBA club look like a different team.
“She got off the plane and just balled out,” teammate Kennedy Burke said.
The Sun are at the quarter post of a season like no other, a lame-duck season, but unlike other franchises in other leagues, they are promoting it as a farewell tour. Awkward, maybe, but folks will buy in as we are in the all-about-the-merch world of sports in the 2020s.
This night could have been a debacle, with the uncomfortable cold and wind holding down some participation in the FanFest across the street and indifference from Connecticut fans about to be abandoned for Houston, but it wasn’t. It was, in fact, an entertaining night in downtown Hartford, a prelude to what should really be a crazy night, July 2, when Paige Buckers and Azzi Fudd play in PeoplesBank with the Dallas Wings.
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On the court, the Sun (2-8) are transitioning from its current structure to whatever the front office will look like next season in Houston. If there is an unspoken directive from new owners to tank the season so the new Comets get better position in the WNBA Draft, there was no sign of it in the Sun on Saturday.
“If you think back to the 2025 season, we started off rough,” team president Jennifer Rizzotti said. “We had some injuries, we didn’t have Leila, and then we were about .500 to finish the season. It’s not something you want to do every year, but if you can do that again, at least we’re going to know that we’re building the right way. We did choose to go younger this year with less veterans. Obviously that’s not the winning recipe for the future, but it allows us to get a really good sense of what some of these young players are capable of, who we’re going to continue to invest in and then, as we move forward, what kind of veterans we need in our locker rooms.”
The Sun brought in veterans Burke and Brittney Griner, who missed the second half after taking a shot to her face late in the first half. Lecan practiced enough this week for Meziane to start her, and she scored the first seven points. Then she cooled off and got into foul trouble as the game went back and forth. After checking in for good with four fouls early in the fourth quarter, she left her mark on the finish of the game: 12 points, three assists, a plus-four across 21 minutes.
“You can see it, she’s very poised, she’s been here before,” Morrow said. “Just being able to be impactful, not only offensively, defensively she’s very pesky and defenders don’t like that. When you have a leader like that, especially at point guard, it really matters.”
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Morrow, one of those young players who is in the midst of a breakthrough, had 17 points, 14 rebounds and two steals. Diamond Miller, who’s nifty at the basket and made a scoop shot with the and-one gave the Sun breathing room midway through the fourth quarter, had 12 points; Burke scored 14 off the bench. That’s the who and the what. In will department, the Sun controlled the boards, 37-29, and Meziane counted 17 deflections, further signs of a team that wants to do more than say, “Goodbye Connecticut,” in 2026.
“(Saturday) showed, when we put out minds to it, play together, stay together in those rough moments, we can be a dangerous team,” Burke said. “We have to keep building on that. At the same time, knowing we have a lot of games coming up, we have to take care of our bodies and focus in practice, but it can be a lot of fun when we just put our minds to it and play together.”
Even with the league expanding from 12 to 15 teams over the past two seasons, The W still has, essentially, the top 180 players in the world, many of whom are several years out of college. It’s not a league for a young roster, nor an aged one. The early season schedule has done the Sun no favors. Their three games at Mohegan Sun Arena have included two against the defending champ Las Vegas Aces. They opened the season at New York, the championship favorites going in, and their recent West Coach swing yielded four losses in five games.
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“We sat down as a team to try to figure out a solution, how we can play better,” Meziane said. “We stayed together during the road trip, even though we were losing games, and we showed a lot of resilience.”
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The Sun go to first-place Atlanta and Chicago before returning home to play the Liberty on June 8, and getting Griner and Aaliyah Edwards (concussion) on the court with Lecan will help. They caught the Sparks (4-4) at a good time, after a one-day turnaround from a road game at Washington, and Kelsey Plum out with an ankle injury, but they had to play hard to get a win, and the Sun, reflecting their coach, played like it still matters.
A 1-8 start to a 44-game season is a lot to overcome, but if the Sun’s goal is to leave Connecticut on amicable terms, prove worthy of the support the franchise has received these 23 seasons, and would have received if they were staying. The Sun have 33 games to do that.
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“It was a great home-court advantage that we had (in Hartford),” Morrow said. “I just talked in the locker room after and I felt that was a team win, a very collective win, and just being able to see we were locked in, disciplined. There are going to be tough games, and we had a lot of flagrant fouls and a lot of reviews, but we stayed together and had each other’s back.”
