Cheryl Reeve became the winningest coach in WNBA history Wednesday, picking up her 380th regular-season win as the Minnesota Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun 86-80 to break a tie with Mike Thibault.
Reeve had been stuck at 379 for more than a week, missing her first two chances at the record in losses at New York and at home to this same Sun team on Monday, the Lynx’s first back-to-back skid of the season. She got it in the building where Thibault once coached, with his son Eric sitting on her own bench as Minnesota’s associate head coach.
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“I am so glad this is over,” Reeve said afterward.
Connecticut led for most of the night and still led by two entering the fourth quarter, but Minnesota closed the game on a 26-15 run to pull away. Reserves Antonia Delaere and Dorka Juhász combined for 17 of their 22 points in the fourth quarter, and Juhász sealed it with a 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left.
Kayla McBride led Minnesota with 23 points on 6-of-10 shooting, adding four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. She said the record meant as much to her as it did to Reeve.
“For me, she changed the trajectory of my career,” McBride said. “This standard of excellence, I think it’s like a lost art in our league, and to be one of the coaches that has been around for so long in one franchise says a lot.”
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Natasha Howard and Courtney Williams each added 12 points, and Juhász, in her second game back from a foot injury, finished with 12 points on a career-high 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. She said the trust of her teammates helped her keep firing after a rusty start to the night.
“I wasn’t shooting the way I wanted to, especially from three,” Juhász said. “Throughout the game, Courtney kept telling me, ‘You’ve got to take those shots. Don’t pass them up.’ It’s great to have teammates who believe in you.”
Reeve, hired by Minnesota in 2010, has now led the Lynx to four championships (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017), tying her with Van Chancellor for the most titles by a head coach in league history, and she has won four Coach of the Year awards, also a league record. Her career record stands at 380-196, a .660 winning percentage that trails only Las Vegas‘ Becky Hammon among active coaches. A fifth title this season would break her tie with Chancellor outright. Reeve was showered with gold confetti in the Lynx locker room afterward, dancing with her players as the room broke into chants of “Cheryl, Cheryl.”
Olivia Miles, the Lynx’s rookie All-Star, missed her second straight game with a calf strain.
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Leila Lacan led Connecticut (5-17) with 15 points, six assists, and six rebounds, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored 14. The Sun played without Brittney Griner (left quad strain) and Aneesah Morrow (personal reasons), and Saniya Rivers was taken off the court in a wheelchair and did not return because of a left ankle sprain.
Minnesota begins a four-game homestand Saturday against the New York Liberty. Connecticut hosts the Golden State Valkyries on Friday.
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