Edwards leads the way with a career-high 26 points in win over Chicago

It was a wonderful night for the 8,000 fans of the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

Fans got to see the number for Tina Charles retired, joining Sun legends in the rafters of the arena.

And they got to see the return of second-year pro Aaliyah Edwards, who scored a career-high 26 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as the Sun won their tenth game of the season with an 87-81 win over Chicago.

Edwards missed the last four games for Connecticut with a left ankle injury.

The Sun (10-27) led by as many as 20 points and won for just the second time in the last six games. Diamond Miller had 21 points and three assists while Kennedy Burke scored 19 points and had five steals.

As been the case much of the season, the Sun were shorthanded. Six-foot-nine Brittney Griner missed her fifth straight game with a left knee injury while guard Leila Lecan is back in France to prepare for the upcoming FIBA World Cup tournament in Germany next month.

This was first of four games left in Uncasville for the Sun, who will be moving to Houston after the conclusion of this season.

Connecticut plays Golden State (26-11) on Wednesday beginning at 7 p.m. and then has two more games against Minnesota and Toronto in September to close out their WNBA run in Uncasville.

In an online advertisement, the Sun are calling this their Golden Hour:  “That brief moment before sunset when everything looks it most beautiful and when everything glows a little brighter, a little warmer and a little more unforgettable. You have to feel it, savor it, bask in its glow before the last of the sun’s rays sink beneath the horizon.”

For one evening, the Sun gave their fans a game to appreciate and savor.

It began with honoring Charles, the WNBA’s all-time rebounding leader and one of the most decorated players in league history, who was selected first overall by Connecticut in the 2010 WNBA draft. She began her professional career with the Sun, playing four seasons from 2010–13, before returning to finish her career in Connecticut during the 2025 season.

In 2012, Charles delivered one of the greatest seasons in franchise history, averaging 18.0 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, in route to WNBA MVP honors. That season, she also secured her third consecutive peak rebounding title and led the Sun to a 25–9 record and the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

A three-time Olympic gold medal champion, Charles was the best player on the floor for the Sun in 2025, starting a career-high 42 games and averaging 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds at the age of 36.

The Sun led virtually from start to finish. Connecticut had a comfortable lead for most of the game before Chicago (15-24) made a run in the final minutes with former UConn star Azura Stevens scoring 11 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter.

After a steal, Courtney VanderSloot hit a three-pointer with 2:20 remaining to cut reduce what was a 20-point to three. But Miller sank a pair of foul shots with 1:52 left to push the lead back to five, 84-79.

After Chicago’s Syndey Taylor missed a driving layup to the basket, it was Edwards scoring on a pretty drive to the basket to boost the lead to seven with 1:29 left.

“You got to give credit to Connecticut. They have a lot of great players and a lot of them can score and today was their night,” Chicago’s Gabriela Jaquez said. “I think we did bring that energy coming back from like a 20-point lead bringing it to maybe one possession game. So, I’m proud of us to fight like that but we can’t get in those situations.”

“I thought Connecticut did a really good job of setting their tone and it kind of took us a while to get to match that,” Chicago coach Tyler Marsh said.

“Connecticut did a really good job of getting stops and pushing the pace back at us. And for us, there was a couple of transition defense opportunities early on where we just didn’t have the energy that we needed getting back and then getting
back. And so I think some of that started with our struggles on the offensive end,” Marsh said. “For us, we know that we’re a better team when we’re able to play through our defense, which I think we did in the second half.”

Edwards had 11 of her game-high 26 points in the second quarter and sank seven of her first 10 shots from the field. Miller had nine points in the third quarter, going 3-for-3 from three-point range.

Kamilla Cardoso had a team-leading 24 points for the Sky in the final game with Connecticut.