Rosemont, Ill. — Okay, it's not an easy for a losing franchise to magically transform itself for the better in three easy steps or, in the case of the Connecticut Sun, 20 days together.

It would have been nonetheless nice to have seen many more glimmers of hope from Connecticut during Saturday's season-opener after three seasons buried deep in the WNBA Eastern Conference mire.

The Curt Miller era had a dismal first-half start in a 93-70 loss to the Elena Delle Donne-less Chicago Sky before 6,719 at Allstate Arena.

The Sky put the Sun in a 45-25 hole in the first half. Connecticut never had a lead, either.

"(I'm) frustrated that we let their pressure bother us at times so much and dictate us that way," Miller said. "We had a tough first half inside the arc, surprisingly ... We shot 16 percent inside the arc for the first half. We could not make a basket around the rim.'"

To quote Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "You take it on faith, you take it to the heart, the waiting is the hardest part."

"It's just disappointing when you feel like that mentally you're ready to go, but we sort of got punched in the face and we couldn't recover," forward Chiney Ogwumike said.

Courtney Vandersloot had 14 points and seven assists for Chicago and Cappie Pondexter scored 13. All of its players scored six-or-more.

Alex Bentley scored 14 points and rookie Rachel Banham 13 for Connecticut, which shot a dismal 33.8 percent (24-of-71) from the floor.

Ogwumike had four points and two rebounds in her return to the Sun. The 2014 WNBA Rookie of the Year missed all of last season following microfracture surgery on her right knee on Jan. 22, 2015. She was held out of Connecticut's three preseason games.

Delle Donne, the 2015 WNBA Most Valuable Player, was out sick.

"I considered us a major underdog going into tonight, even without Delle Donne, just because we have so little (plays) in and such moving parts," Miller said. "We ran plays wrong. Our timing was off at times. Some of that was absolutely their pressure. Some of that it was uncertainty of the offense, uncertainty of the timing of things. That's not going to happen overnight."

It was evident early which team had been together for a few seasons (several of which played for Chicago in the 2014 WNBA Finals), and which team had a new system, not enough time to get acclimated, and averages a mere 25.3 years old.

All that written, it didn't excuse Connecticut's lack of fire at the start or, worst of all, the way it was whacked on the boards. Chicago had a 46-33 rebounding edge. That included 15 offensive rebounds.

"All the hustle plays and loose balls, they got to all of them," Jasmine Thomas said. "It just took us too long to wake up."

"The biggest disappointment was our competitiveness on the boards," Miller said. "We inherited a team that wasn't a great rebounding team last year. It felt like with Chiney back and some rookie draft picks in the post (Morgan Tuck and Jonquel Jones) that we have potential to be a better rebounding team, but they were the more physical team. And in this league, the more physical teams typically win."

Connecticut's first half resembled a lot of what one has seen from it over the last three seasons — an all-around bummer.

The Sky led by six points early in the second quarter when Vandersloot took Jasmine Thomas off the dribble for a layup. Cheyenne Parker followed with a reverse layup.

Ogwumike's turnover on one end resulted in Parker getting a layup for a three-point play on the other end. Parker struck again when she made two free throws to push Chicago out front, 33-18, with 5 minutes 57 seconds left in the second quarter.

Shekinna Stricklen's 3-pointer broke up the Sky's run. Briefly. Jones was called for her second foul in a little over a minute. Pondexter made two free throws.

The first half had a dreary, apropos end for the Sun as Bentley was called for her third foul with a mere 5.8 seconds on the clock.

Pondexter made one of her two shots to give the Sky a 45-25 halftime lead.

The first half misery by the numbers for Connecticut — it missed 22 of 31 shots (29 percent). It had 10 rebounds to eight offensive rebounds for Chicago (23 overall). The Sun made 2 of 4 free throws. The Sky shot 13-15.

The Sun did better coming out of the half as it shot 10-of-21 (47.6) in the third quarter.

Banham's 3-pointer "cut" Connecticut's deficit to 70-58 with 51.9 seconds left in the third quarter.

It was too late and not enough.

"We had a great third quarter," Thomas said, "but we had already dug ourselves into a hole."

n.griffen@theday.com