With Tina Charles joining starters Allison Hightower, Kara Lawson and Kelly Faris on the sidelines it would have been easy for the Connecticut Sun to just roll out the balls and count down the seconds until the frustrating 2013 season is nothing but a part of history.

However, veteran Tan White was scoring a career-high 26 points to go with six assists, three rebounds, three steals and one memorable block when she chased down rookie Tayler Hill from behind led the Sun to a 77-70 victory over Washington on Friday night.

The soft-spoken White has assumed more of a leadership role with so many of the Sun's top players out for the season with a variety of injuries.

"Tan has been talking about pride all week," Connecticut Sun coach Anne Donovan said..

White backed up her talk with one of her best performances in a Connecticut Sun uniform.

"We are playing with a lot of pride, it doesn't matter who is out we are just going to fight and play hard as a team," White said.

"We feel like we are a much better team than our record indicates. It's been a long season overall but no matter who dresses out, we have to play for 40 minutes as a team."

With Charles missing her first game of the season, only Kelsey Griffin and Kalana Greene have played every game with Griffin the only one to start every game. Lawson, Montgomery, White, Hightower and Faris have combined to miss 57 games.

The Sun has a WNBA-worst 8-22 record and is guaranteed to finish with one of the top four picks in the 2014 WNBA draft. There have been rumblings that veterans could be on the trading block so those healthy enough to suit up could be playing for 2014 contracts.