Bentley Named WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week
June 16, 2014 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Connecticut Sun News Release
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (June 16, 2014) - Sun guard Alex Bentley was named WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played from June 9th through June 15th. It is the first Player of the Week award of Bentley's career.
The second-year player, acquired by the Sun on March 12th in a three-way trade with the Atlanta Dream and the Washington Mystics, led the team to a perfect 3-0 mark last week. Against the Phoenix Mercury Thursday, Bentley had a career-high 22 points while also contributing five assists and four rebounds in a 96-95 victory. The following night in New York, she established a new career-best with 24 points in Connecticut's 83-75 win at Madison Square Garden. In the fourth quarter at New York -- as the Liberty were cutting a 16-point deficit to two -- Bentley scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Her three-pointer with 1:02 left, followed by two free throws with 37 seconds left sealed the first road win for the Sun since last August 3rd.
Bentley closed out the week with a 12-point, four assist performance in a 76-72 Sun victory over the Liberty on Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena. Over that three-game stretch, Bentley went 22-of-36 from the field (61.1%) and 4-of-5 from behind the arc (80%).
Bentley, a member of the 2013 WNBA All-Rookie Team, ranks second on the Sun with a scoring average of 11.2 points per game and leads Connecticut in assists at 3.3 per contest. She is second on the team in field goal percentage at 47.8 percent (54-of-113) and first in three-point field goal percentage at 45.8 percent (11-of-24). Her three-point field goal percentage is fourth in the Eastern Conference while her assist average is seventh.
Skylar Diggins of the Tulsa Shock received the WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week. Other candidates for WNBA Players of the Week in the Eastern Conference were Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry and Washington's Emma Meesseman. Additional candidates in the Western Conference were Phoenix's Candice Dupree and Diana Taurasi, San Antonio's Danielle Robinson, and Seattle's Tanisha Wright.
Women's National Basketball Association Stories from June 16, 2014
- Diggins Named Western Conference Player of the Week - Tulsa Shock
- Bentley Named WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week - Connecticut Sun
- Young Players Shine as Tulsa's Diggins, Connecticut's Bentley Earn Weekly Honors - WNBA
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