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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP)  The Connecticut Sun head into the offseason with a win, and the Atlanta Dream go into the playoffs with a loss.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alex Bentley had 19 points and four assists as Connecticut wrapped up its season with an 84-55 rout of Atlanta on Sunday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Angel McCoughtry scored 10 points for the Dream (19-15), who had already clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sunday was not how Atlanta wanted to head into the postseason. Its 55 points were a franchise low, and it lost 10 of its final 14 games.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''I thought we became very passive,'' coach Michael Cooper said. ''We had 26 turnovers, and that is not championship basketball.''&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chiney Ogwumike had 14 points and seven rebounds and fellow rookie Alyssa Thomas added 13 points and four assists for the Sun (13-21), who will miss the playoffs for the second straight season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''I feel pretty empty,'' coach Anne Donovan said. ''It's a great win, and I'm really happy that we were able to play everybody. Everybody was able to step in and produce, but I'm not looking forward to having a longer offseason than I already have.''&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bentley scored six points during a 10-0 run to give the Sun an early 19-9 lead. They never trailed again.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''It's bittersweet right now,'' Bentley said. ''Obviously, we aren't where we wanted to be at the end of season, but we finished strong. I'm proud of my teammates for that.''&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Connecticut pushed its lead to double digits in the second half.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''Every game needs to be played hard as expected, but Connecticut came out and played harder,'' McCoughtry said. ''They had something to prove, like, `We are not in the playoffs, but we are going to show we deserve to be there.' On our part, we need to come out more focused every game.''&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ogwumike thought the Sun made a statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''Even though we aren't in the playoffs, you see the potential of this team and the potential is great,'' she said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Sun rebuilt themselves this season around a young nucleus and struggled with both inexperience and a lack of perimeter shooting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Connecticut now looks forward to the offseason, beginning with Thursday's WNBA Draft lottery. It has a 28 percent chance of winning the first pick for the second season with two selections - its own, and the first-round pick the Sun acquired from New York as part of a package for All-Star center Tina Charles on the night of April's draft.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''I think we're young. We're learning. We are playing together. We're unselfish, and we are only going to go up from here,'' Donovan said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atlanta needs to regroup with the playoffs starting this week. It has won the conference title three of the past four seasons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;''The two games before this, we were playing great and everything was going well,'' rookie Shoni Schimmel said, ''and for this game to happen, it was kind of like a reality check for us.''&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/wnba/2014/08/17/ap-bkl-dream-sun>