Mohegan — Say this much for the Connecticut Sun: They're entertaining. They don't play particularly smart, handle the ball like it's about to detonate, miss alarming numbers of free  throws and commit exasperating fouls. But there's a reason only a handful of fans left early Tuesday night in a game that ended very late.

They played into triple overtime, the Sun did, and fell an eyelash short to the Washington Mystics, 109-106, in a game whose drama dwarfed its execution. The Mystics made four straight layups in overtime, surviving 31 points from the Sun's Alex Bentley, who has returned from witness protection.

The record is 2-9 now, although this much is true: If this is the effort we see the rest of the season, there's a reason to keep watching.

The Sun have an unwitting partner in this growing pains thing: the Mystics, who also have a roster full of young players — coach Mike Thibault called his team and Connecticut the two of the youngest in the WNBA. So when he talks of his team, he's talking about the Sun, too.

"The effort was tremendous," Thibault said, his voice showing the first signs of becoming hoarse. "Part of the growing process is you have to play smarter. I just begged them to grow up quicker. These are two of the youngest teams in the league. Trying to figure things out is a painstaking process."

The Sun had opportunities to win the game with the ball at the end of regulation and the first two overtimes. They went 0-for-3. And yet they probably lost the game earlier.

They committed six turnovers in the first half ... and six in the first five minutes of the second half. Think about that. Six turnovers in roughly eight or nine possessions.

They committed the first six fouls of the fourth period. Normally, this is cause to hammer away at the officials. And while it's unlikely Washington went virtually the entire quarter without actually fouling, the Sun earned all of theirs. The Mystics went 31-33 from the foul line in the game, perhaps making Rick Barry weep tears of joy somewhere.

"The foul discrepancy was embarrassing in the fourth quarter and in overtime," Sun coach Curt Miller said. "Tayler Hill (who scored 10 points in the third overtime) got some of the calls we didn't seem to get."

One silver lining for Connecticut: Chiney Ogwumike played very well in the fourth period, scoring eight points and forcing a turnover late by defending Emma Meesseman (23 points) well in the post. I have no idea why, with a minute left, Miller replaced Ogwumike with Camille Little, who had yet the score in the game.

Little committed a turnover in regulation, allowed Meesseman to get past leading to a subsequent foul and two free throws and then turned it over in overtime.

I get that Miller needs Little's veteran presence on the floor to help avoid some of the confounding things we see the Sun do. Except that this season, 2-9 already, isn't going anywhere. I'd rather play Ogwumike and the kids more, not less. The Sun have become a program about the future, not the present. Again.

Bentley and Kelsey Bone played their two best games of the year, perhaps indicating there's burgeoning Glasnost between them and the coaching staff. That's good. There are incremental improvements here. Just not enough of them. Yet.

Bill Laimbeer, Tina Charles and the New York Liberty come here Thursday night, leaving the exhausted Sun a day to prepare for a team with some veterans. Maybe Thibault provided a glimmer for his old team when he said, "Playing in games like this, you hope, accelerates the process."

Thibault, now 12-3 against his old team, was asked if he got any extra satisfaction from that number.

"I'm over all that stuff," he said. "Well, not completely. It does feel good to win here."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.