Connecticut Sun 71-62 Chicago Sky, WNBA 2025: ‘Selfless’ Basketball Helped Sun Seal Victory, Says Saniya Rivers

The Connecticut Sun played "selfless" basketball to beat the Chicago Sky after seeing Bria Hartley ejected on Wednesday, said team-mate Saniya Rivers.

The Sun are on the brink of playoff elimination in the WNBA, but they kept their slim hopes of a post-season run alive with a 71-62 win at home, improving to 6-26 for the season.

That victory came despite Hartley – who is averaging 9.2 points, 2.0 assists and 3.1 rebounds this season – being ejected during the second quarter.

Hartley was battling for a rebound with Chicago's Rebecca Allen, who appeared to grab her right arm, causing Hartley to push her opponent to the ground.

Chicago's Ariel Atkins then shoved Hartley, with all three players ejected after a review that lasted around 10 minutes.

Hartley had previously been ejected once this season, with Connecticut losing 101-86 to the Los Angeles Sparks on that occasion. But against the Sky, they produced a well-rounded performance to snap a five-game losing run.

"We're sharing the ball," Rivers said afterwards, having contributed eight points on 3-of-8 shooting from field-goal range. 

"I think we're playing beautiful basketball defensively and just moving as one unit. 

"We don't tend to win or play well when we're playing selfishly. I think tonight we played together on both ends of the ball.

"We fight. I think I've known that all along. We've always had the pieces; we just had to figure out how to put it together. Everybody has a role on the team, and the roles change every night. 

"It depends on what the game looks like, who we're playing, and I think everybody's starting to tap into that, that you have to just be selfless and play whatever role on every given night."

Chicago coach Tyler Marsh, meanwhile, blamed the ejections of two of his star players on the officials' failure to maintain control of the game.

"I think things like that have a tendency to happen when there's not a control put on the game prior to it," Marsh said. 

"There's usually an incident that goes overlooked that leads to something like that. She [Allen] clearly got elbowed in the face right in front of the ref, and it wasn't called. 

"Then other things ensued. It's unfortunate for us. Two players that play high-quality, high-valuable minutes for us."

The Sky are back in action on Thursday against the Golden State Valkyries, while Connecticut go on the road to face the Indiana Fever on Sunday.