The looks were there, but the shots did not fall Friday for the Minnesota Lynx until they absolutely had to fall.
Natisha Hiedeman swished home a 3-pointer with 1:04 remaining to cap a 18-0 run for the first Lynx lead of the game and Minnesota rallied to beat Connecticut 76-70.
“Coming out of the huddle we just said everybody needs to be aggressive,” said Hiedeman. “… Just taking what the defense give me.”
By scoring 23 of the game’s final 25 points, Minnesota is off to its first 4-0 start since beginning its 2017 championship season 9-0.
Marina Mabrey got the 0-3 Sun within one, but Hiedeman split four Connecticut defenders on a drive to the hoop and a 73-70 lead with 31.3 seconds left in a headache-inducing, raucous Target Center. The noise got even louder with a Bridget Carleton steal with 23 seconds left.
“It was so amazing. It was so fun, so loud. They were like our sixth man out there,” Napheesa Collier said.
With chants of “MVP” echoing in the arena, Collier calmly made two free throws to all but ice the win.
Collier did her usual thing with 33 points, and Jessica Shepard added 13 and Hiedeman 11 – both off the bench. Collier added 11 rebounds, her first double-figure mark this season.
“Phee is the most consistent player in the league,” Shepard said. “Every night you know what you’re going to get from here. Our team was really struggling tonight and she just kept putting the ball in the basket when we needed baskets and just kept us in the game.”
Not one to regularly express displeasure with officials, Collier more than once had words for someone with a whistle after being hacked on the way to the hoop and no foul being called. Reeve said that’s something the Lynx superstar should not have to go through.
“You put on another game tonight, and you see a post player doing that very same thing … they’re going to be immediately called a foul, immediately. Phee should not have to accept the level of contact she accepted tonight. I thought that was just egregious.”
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