The Connecticut Solar and host Golden State Valkyries come into their assembly on Sunday in San Francisco on a lot totally different trajectories.
The growth Valkyries responded to a sluggish first month of the season, rebounding from a 2-5 begin to win 4 of their final 5. In its most up-to-date outing an 88-77 defeat of the Indiana Fever on Thursday Golden State held famous person Caitlin Clark to only 11 factors on 3-of-14 taking pictures.
Key to Golden State’s defensive effort in opposition to Indiana was Laeticia Amihere, whose 4 blocked pictures bumped her season common to 1.7 per recreation by way of her first three video games with the workforce.
“She has that Kobe mentality face. She by no means smiles all through the sport,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase mentioned of Amihere. “I like that killer intuition she brings.”
Amihere can also be scoring 8.7 factors per recreation, making her one in every of eight Valkyries contributing a minimum of 8.6 factors whereas enjoying in two or extra contests. Kayla Thornton’s 14.8 ppg paces the balanced Golden State offense.
Because the Valkyries look to proceed their profitable pattern, the Solar pay their first-ever go to to the Bay Space attempting to finish a five-game skid.
Connecticut bought 26 factors from Tina Charles on Friday, the workforce’s final dwelling date earlier than embarking on a four-game highway swing. Nevertheless, it was not sufficient because the Solar fell to Dallas 86-83.
With the defeat, Connecticut heads into its highway journey alone on the backside of the WNBA standings.
Whereas the 2025 marketing campaign has been attempting for the Solar, one latest optimistic improvement they may look to develop on is the expansion of rookie ahead Aneesah Morrow. A standout in school at DePaul and LSU, Morrow has put collectively back-to-back double-figure-scoring performances in her greatest skilled performances thus far.
She scored 16 factors and grabbed 9 rebounds on Wednesday vs. Phoenix, then went for 10 factors and 7 rebounds Friday.
“It is arduous for her as a result of she’s undersized, however each time she has a participant like her with the identical profile in entrance of her, I do know she will do an incredible job,” Connecticut coach Rachid Meziane mentioned through the Hartford Courant. “She confirmed me, ‘Hey Coach, you may belief me.’ So that is good.”
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