COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — Angel Reese scored 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting and had 10 rebounds to help the Atlanta Dream rout the Connecticut Sun on Thursday night, 103-59, in the first WNBA game after a nearly three-week break for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
A key member of the U.S. team that clinched the country’s fifth straight World Cup gold medal with Sunday’s win over France in Berlin, Reese reached 30 points on a free throw with 5:38 remaining and grabbed her 10th rebound a few seconds later for her 30th double-double of the year as she extended the WNBA record she set with her 29th last month.
The 24-year-old forward, who is in her first year with Atlanta after playing her first two pro seasons with the Chicago Sky, finished a point shy of her career high while playing 25 minutes in the blowout for the playoff-bound Dream.
Atlanta guard Rhyne Howard set a WNBA single-season record with her 129th 3-pointer. She made her only 3-pointer of the game — in nine attempts — with 6:45 left in the fourth quarter to break Sabrina Ionescu’s record set in 2023. Howard reached the mark in 40 games, four more than Ionescu needed.
Howard, who finished the night with 10 points, was a Chattanooga-area prep standout at Bradley Central before an All-America career at the University of Kentucky that led to her being the No. 1 pick of the 2022 WNBA draft. Like Reese, she was also among the U.S. newcomers at this year’s World Cup.