UConn women’s basketball legend Tina Charles is showing she’s still got plenty of gas left in the tank in her 14th WNBA season with the Connecticut Sun, earning her first Eastern Conference Player of the Week honor in four years on Tuesday.
The veteran forward averaged 19 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and a steal across three games from Aug. 18-24, helping lead the Sun on their first win streak of the season. The team, which is currently in 11th place in the league with a 9-28 record, went 3-0 last week with a pair of victories over the Washington Mystics and another over the Chicago Sky. They have won four of their last six games and haven’t lost a matchup by double digits since Aug. 11 against the Golden State Valkyries.
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Charles’ big week was headlined by 23 points and 10 rebounds in Connecticut’s 94-84 win over Chicago on Aug. 23, which made her the first player in WNBA history to record 200 career double-doubles. The next closest active player to Charles in career double-doubles is three-time MVP A’ja Wilson with 118. It was the sixth double-double of the 2025 season for the 36-year-old, who leads the Sun in scoring averaging 16.2 points per game on 42.9% shooting from the field plus 5.9 rebounds.
Wilson was the Western Conference Player of the Week alongside Charles after averaging 29 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game to help her Las Vegas Aces clinch a spot in the WNBA Playoffs.
Charles has been named Player of the Week 33 times in her career and last received the accolade in September 2021 when she was competing for the Mystics. During her previous stint with Connecticut from 2010-13 she earned Player of the Week honors 10 times, which ranks third in franchise history behind Jonquel Jones’ 12 and Alyssa Thomas’ 11. Charles is the first Sun player this season to receive the recognition and the second UConn alum, joining Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier who earned weekly honors twice on May 28 and June 10.
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