Atlanta — The Connecticut Sun’s season didn’t end on Tuesday.

It sure felt like it was over, though.

The Sun had an abysmal — and record-setting — first half offensively against the Atlanta Dream. It resulted in their fifth straight loss, 71-57, as their playoff hopes continued to fade away.

Connecticut (12-15) didn’t score for the first six minutes and 15 seconds of the game.

The Sun set a franchise record for the fewest field goals in a quarter as it shot just 1-for-13 (7.7-percent) in the first quarter. They also tied a franchise low with five field goals in the first half (5-of-27, 18.5-percent).

“Offensively, it was definitely a struggle,” Connecticut coach Anne Donovan said. “Not putting the ball in the hole was our issue. Look at our percentages. It’s pretty clear.”

Connecticut dropped 3-½ games in the standings behind the fourth-place Washington Mystics with seven games left to play. Washington won the season series to hold that head-to-head tiebreaker. The Sun have the worst conference record, too (4-13).

“We are just fighting for our pride right now and we aren’t really sure about playoffs,” Connecticut rookie reserve Chelsea Gray said. “We just want to leave our mark on the season and play for us.”

It was the third time in 10 days that the last-place Dream (11-16) beat the Sun.

Connecticut starters Alex Bentley (ankle) and Alyssa Thomas (shoulder) and reserve Elizabeth Williams (knee) didn’t play again due to injury.

“There’s definitely some fatigue, some bumps and bruises, but that’s no excuse,” Sun Jasmine Thomas said. “Overall, we had a pretty good defensive game. It's just on offense, we couldn’t get ourselves together; couldn’t find a rhythm. Even when we got stops, we couldn’t convert on the other end.”

Sancho Lyttle had 17 points and seven rebounds for Atlanta and Shoni Schimmel added four 3-pointers and scored 15.

Gray had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists for Connecticut and fellow reserve Shekinna Stricklen scored a team-high 14.

Connecticut’s bench outscored its starters, 34-23.

The Dream didn’t have a strong offensive game, either, as it shot just 39.4-percent. Yet it was more than enough against the staggering Sun.

Atlanta scored the game’s first 10 points. Gray broke it up with a 20-foot pull-up jumper with 3:45 remaining in the first quarter.

Schimmel was double-teamed with seconds left in the quarter, but still nailed an off-balance 3-pointer to give the Dream a 17-9 lead.

Schimmel made another 3-pointer to end the first half to push Atlanta’s lead to 33-18.

Damiris Dantas’ three-point play gave the Dream their largest lead, 45-23, with 6:42 left in the third quarter.

“The girls just need to keep fighting,” Donovan said.