Connecticut’s Tina Charles Named WNBA Eastern Player Of The Week

Tina Charles of the Connecticut Sun and Swin Cash of the Seattle Storm were named the WNBA’s Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for regular season games played Monday, June 27 through Sunday, July 3.  

Charles ranked first in the league in rebounds (16.5 rpg) while leading the Sun to a 2-0 record.  Among Eastern Conference players, she ranked sixth in points (21.0 ppg) and eighth in field goal percentage (.526).  This marks Charles’s third Player of the Week award in her two seasons, and the second time she has won the honor this season.  

On June 28, Charles, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year, scored 22 points and tied her career-high with 23 rebounds in a 79-76 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks, the second 20-point, 20-rebound game of her career.  Charles also had 23 rebounds June 25, 2010, against Phoenix, one board shy of tying Chamique Holdsclaw's league record of 24 set on May 23, 2003.  Notably, Holdsclaw is the only other player in league history to have multiple 20-20 games, and also did it twice – on June 25, 2002 and May 23, 2003.

Additionally, Charles had 16 second-half rebounds in the game, tying the WNBA record for rebounds in one half.  Janell Burse also had 16 rebounds in the first half of a game on May 23, 2007.  In terms of defensive rebounds, Charles finished with 16, falling one defensive rebound short of her career-high of 17, set at Atlanta on July 7, 2010.

On July 1, in a 75-70 home victory over Seattle, she recorded 20 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth consecutive double-double of the year, tying the longest stretch of double-doubles in her career.  

This season, Charles is averaging 19.8 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.    

For the week, Cash led the Storm to a 1-1 record -- all road games -- and finished first in the Western Conference in scoring (22.0 ppg) and fourth in rebounds (8.0 rpg).  

In a 75-70 loss to Connecticut on July 1, Cash scored a season-high 25 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and shot a perfect 12-for-12 on free throws.  Two days later, she posted 19 points, seven rebounds and two assists in a 73-63 victory over Washington.  

This is Cash’s fifth Player of the Week award in her career, and marks the first time she has won the honor this season.

Other candidates for WNBA Players of the Week were Chicago’s Epiphanny Prince, Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen, New York’s Cappie Pondexter, Tulsa’s Kayla Pedersen and Washington’s Victoria Dunlap.