Howdy,

There were a few things that didn't make it into today's Connecticut game advance.

Hated to see said words go to waste, so….

…. Connecticut returns to Neon Uncasville tonight after winning two of three on the road. Its last winning road trip was in June 2010.

El Sol is 5-6 away from home. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but they've already won as many road games as they did all of last season.

Consider, too, that it's very tough to win on the road in the WNBA. Only four of 12 teams have winning road records because there's too much talent spread amongst so few franchises.

"Asjha (Jones) had a huge impact on this trip despite being in foul trouble a couple of times," Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said. "There were big, big moments during the trip where our bench was really important.

"Renee (Montgomery) got her shooting touch back on this trip. Tina (Charles) is Tina. She's playing great. And you know Kalana (Greene), she's never been one that's had big numbers offensively, but she's had a tough assignment defensively every night for about a month. We decided to put her on (Phoenix's) Penny Taylor (Sunday) to just try to kind of hold her below her norm. She had to guard Swin (Cash) and Sue (Bird) in Seattle. She had to guard Tina Thompson in L.A. That's her role and she's done it.

"We kind of got Kelsey (Griffin) going. She was good (Sunday). She didn't score, but she was really good defensively and on the boards. Tan (White) and Kara (Lawson), I thought, made (Diana) Taurasi really, really work in the second half (Sunday) to get a good shot."

Rookie Danielle McCray struggled on the road, a common problem for younger players.

McCray's home and away stats couldn't be more different:

                                              Home (nine games)    Away (11)

Minutes                                140                              145

FG made-attempted             28-53 (52.8 %)            11-47 (23.4)

3-pointers made-attempted 17-28                          3-22

Points                                   85 (9.4 avg.)                27 (2.5)

"I've told her that her next big step is to become the same player on the road that she is at home," Thibault said.

McCray played only the first 45 seconds at Phoenix after picking up two quick fouls guarding Taurasi.

"(Sunday) was not as much her fault as the officials," Thibault said. "They weren't going to give her a break versus Taurasi, so we went with veterans to get a chance to get a call."

Allison Hightower replaced McCray, and she was quickly called for two fouls. That would be a combined four foul calls on the duo just three minutes and 35 seconds into the game.

"I watched the two (McCray) got and the two that Ali got," Thibault said. "My goodness."

Connecticut has also been winning despite some oddball shooting percentages.

The Sun are ninth in shooting percentage (42.9), which isn't awful.

Connecticut is ninth in defensive field goal percentage (44.3), which ain't good.

"It doesn't jump out at you until you look," Thibault said, "but we generally have more quality possessions in a game than the other team because we don't turn the ball over as much as our opponents. We generally shoot more free throws than our opponent (379 attempts to 312). And we've been even on the boards percentage-wise. That wins you a lot of games.

"I'd like our defensive field goal percentage to be way better, but we're forcing teams to turn the ball over, too, during this stretch. If you have a game where, at the end of the day, you have several more field goal attempts and several more free throw attempts, then you have a chance to win."

Vaya con dios….