Sun now have a capable pair at the point
Hiedeman and Harris give the team backcourt depth
On Thursday, the point guard's role definitively belonged to Natisha Hiedeman, who marked a Connecticut Sun franchise record for most points in a quarter with 20 in the third, a career-best 24 points overall.
“I didn't even know what was going on. It was just going in, so I just kept shooting,” Hiedeman said with a grin following the Sun's 82-71 victory over the Atlanta Dream at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Hiedeman, though, has been dealing with a rib injury, sitting out the bulk of the second half of a game against the Washington Mystics on July 9 and playing just five minutes in Connecticut's ensuing game at Chicago on July 12.
During that stretch, it was Hiedeman's understudy, Ty Harris, taking on the majority of playing time at the helm, giving the Sun (166) a pair of more than worthy point guards as they head into the second half of the WNBA season.
Connecticut travels to Atlanta for a 1 p.m. game today, a rematch with the Dream (12-9).
“I think the biggest thing for Ty has been confidence, building her confidence and being a little more self-assured in what she's calling on the floor, the reads on the floor, what we want on the floor,” Sun head coach Stephanie White said of Harris.
“Ty has a true point guard mentality. She understands where the ball needs to get to, how we want to get it there and so having her on the floor has been big for us, particularly while (Hiedeman has) been struggling a little bit.”
Harris, a South Carolina grad, was the seventh overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings, sent to Connecticut in a three-team trade with the New York Liberty earlier this year.
Harris had a season-high 15 points June 11 against Atlanta and scored double figures in back-to-back games this month, followed by contributing a season-high eight assists in a career-high 34 minutes played in Chicago, with Hiedeman ailing.
A WBCA All-American at South Carolina, where she finished as the Gamecocks' alltime assist leader and was the SEC assists leader as a senior, the 5-foot-10 Harris hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter in the Sun's 92-84 win over the Mystics on July 9.
In Thursday's 11:30 a.m. start, the Sun trailed Atlanta 41-38 at halftime when Hiedeman kicked things into gear, scoring more points by herself in the third quarter than the Dream. She was 5-for-5 from 3-point range in the quarter, 6-for-7 overall.
“The message was just to come out with a lot of energy,” Hiedeman said of White's directive to the team at halftime. “I can't say exactly what she said. It was just to come out with a lot of energy. Like we have to come out and be ready . ... I think really that's why we won the game was the start of the third.”
“She's a player who really wants to do well and really wants to be what the team needs,” White said of Hiedeman. “So when that first one went down I was like, ‘OK, please let her find it.' And she did. She was huge.”
The Thursday game was a quick turnaround after the Sun's late game Tuesday in
Phoenix, a loss to start the second half of the season. And Connecticut endured some travel difficulties, already taking a red-eye and compounding that with a delay.
The Sun stand in a virtual deadlock with the Liberty (14-5) atop the Eastern Conference standings, third overall behind the Las Vegas Aces (20-2). White said Connecticut will have to be even better in the second half of the season.
“We know the first half is gone.
What we were able to do in the first half doesn't matter,” White said. “The biggest thing is everybody leveling up a little bit. Everybody's got to step up. Everybody's got to be great at what they do best.
“We have to collectively elevate in terms of our execution, our rebounding, our toughness, our physicality. We're not playing teams for the first or second time now . ... It's about mentally weathering through the toughness of this league, not just on the floor.”