Connecticut Sun come out 88-85 winners over Indiana Fever in overtime – WNBA Recap
Playing in front of their home crowd Connecticut Sun managed to edge out the visiting Indiana Fever in a closely contested affair with an 88-85 win in overtime.
Sun were paced by Kara Lawson who finished the game with 22 points and four rebounds. The hard fought win by her team left Lawson very pleased;
“Facing pressure situations and being forced to execute against great players, that's what we need right now,'' Lawson said. ``We don't need a bunch of 30 or 40-point blowouts. We need to have our feet put to the fire in the regular
season so, come playoff time, when we go into overtime, we not only have that sense of calm, but we just have great confidence that we can make plays and win the game.''
However the Sun`s did not have Lawson performing well on the night only. They had 4 other players crossing the double figure mark. Tina Charles chipped in with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Kalana Greene and Renee Montgomery contributed
12 points each. Both of them combined to shoot the ball 10 of 16 from the field and also combined for 6 rebounds and 5 assists
Allison Hightower managed to get 10 points in the game but her most impressive play came with 41.7 second remaining in overtime as she fed Charles for her 5th field goal of the night which gave the Sun the lead.
On the other hand, Katie Douglas was spectacular for Fever with 23 points. She was given a helping hand by Tamika Catchings, who finished with 14 points. Douglas and Catchings combined to get Fever back into the game deep into
the fourth quarter and took the game into overtime, but the duo failed to make the final push.
Connecticut had a great start to the game as they raced out to an 11-2 lead early in the first quarter. They were able to extend their lead into double figures and closed out the quarter ahead by 28-17.
The second quarter saw the Indiana team trying their best to make a comeback. They opened up with an 8-2 run to get to within 5. However Sun managed to stabilize their game after that and managed to stay ahead by 6 points at the
interval courtesy of Lawson`s and Green`s exploits, who scored the final 9 points of the first half for Connecticut.
From the 6:39 mark till 2:26 remaining in the third quarter, Indiana made a 13-1 run to take a 2 point lead in the ball game. The remaining time in the period saw both teams trying their best to out manoeuvre each other; however
it ended with Connecticut holding a 2 point lead, 65-63.
In the early stages of the fourth, the scores remained level pegging but with 2:39 remaining till the buzzer, the Sun`s held a 5 point lead. The final minutes of the fourth quarter saw Indiana make an impressive comeback to send
the game into overtime. First, Douglas hit a go ahead three pointer and then Catchings drove to the basket to tie up the score.
It was not clear up until the final shot of who is going to win this one, however the heroics of Charles, Lawson and Hightower combined in the final seconds earned Connecticut an impressive win. Fever failed to score in the final
2:36 of overtime.
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