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WNBA Headlines
- Prince to miss a few weeks to play for Russia
- Sun's Lawson wins WNBA's Dawn Staley Award
- ACL tears behind her, Gemelos chases place in WNBA
- Cambage reverses course, will play for Shock
- Basketball Australia hires Joyce as women's coach
- Griner learns skyhook from Abdul-Jabbar
- Mystics defeat Brazilian national team 71-56
- Mystics sign free agent Jessica Moore
- 5-year veteran Swanier, Alverson cut by Dream
- Tulsa Shock cut 2 more from training camp roster
By ALAN FERGUSON
(AP) -- Opponents have been successful at limiting Tina Charles in recent games, and that's helped cool off the Connecticut Sun following a strong start.
The U.S. Olympian will attempt to break out of that funk Friday night and get the Eastern Conference leaders back in the win column with a road game against the Tulsa Shock, owners of the WNBA's worst record.
Charles averaged 20.2 points and shot 50.8 percent during the Sun's 9-2 start, but she's scored 10.7 and made 28.3 percent from the field over the last three games.
The Sun have lost two of those, with Charles going 4 of 20 and finishing with 13 points in the latest defeat, 89-83 in overtime to Seattle on Sunday.
"She is getting double-teamed a lot," coach Mike Thibault said. "She has missed some shots that she normally makes. I thought early in the game (Sunday), she settled for some jump shots. I thought that she had a matchup where she could attack inside."
Charles and the Sun (10-4) will try for a better performance against the Shock (2-12), though a strong showing from the center couldn't lift Connecticut to a win in its most recent trip to Tulsa on Aug. 28.
Charles scored 21 points and shot 9 of 13 while grabbing 10 rebounds, but Renee Montgomery was the only other Sun player to score in double figures in the 83-72 loss.
Tulsa couldn't follow up a rare victory with another one in its last game, falling 102-92 to Atlanta on Friday after routing Los Angeles by 16 points three days earlier.
The Shock allowed the Dream shoot 60.9 percent and go 6 of 11 from 3-point range. Ivory Latta and Glory Johnson each scored 16 for Tulsa.
"They were getting easy baskets and we can't let teams do that," Latta said. "We have to play hard for 40 minutes."
Latta averaged a team-best 22.5 points and made 76.0 percent from the floor against Connecticut last season as the teams split two matchups. She scored 19 points and hit eight of 11 shots Aug. 28.
Connecticut has lost three straight to Western Conference opponents but is 4-1 on the road this season. Tulsa is 0-4 against East teams and 2-6 at home.
Updated July 5, 2012
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