Indiana Fever edge out Chicago Sky in overtime, 88-86 - WNBA Recap
On Saturday night the game between Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky went right down to the wire.
Heading into the last 10 minutes, Sky were trailing in double figures, but made a dramatic comeback using a 12-0 spurt midway and forced the game into overtime. However, Fever paced by Tamika Catchings, managed to edge Chicago
out, 88-86.
Fever had 5 players in double scoring figures. Tamika marshalled her team with 18 points to go with 6 assists. She was 6-for-8 from the charity stripe and with that performance became the only person in WNBA history to score 1500
career free throws. Jessica Devonport collected 15 points coming off the bench and guard Shavonte Zellous added 14 points. Katie Douglas and Briann January netted 13 points each in Indiana’s 9th victory of this season.
Fever shot 73.7% from the charity stripe, and forced Sky to a total of 27 turnovers in the game.
"They wanted to beat us very badly,'' Indiana coach Lin Dunn said. ``At crunch time we really stepped up. Our bench came through. Defence down the stretch in the final minutes was key.''
Sky skidded down to a 2 game losing streak after this defeat. Sylvia Fowles tallied a game high 24 points to go with 16 boards for Chicago. She had mixed feelings after the game.
“I felt like we start off a little shaky,'' Fowles said. ``Turnovers killed us. Overall we did OK. We just need to cut down on the turnovers.''
Eshaya Murphy scored 20 points while Swin Cash poured in 18, reserve Lecoe Willingham recorded 10 points in Chicago’s 7th loss of the season.
Indiana opened their account in the game with a 14-4 burst and stretched it down to 16-6 deep into the opening frame. Sky could only trim it down to 21-15, when Indiana’s Katie came up with a pair from charity stripe that was followed
by a jumper and concluded the segment at 25-15.
Indiana managed to grab a 31-20 lead midway into the 2nd frame, however Sky keyed a 13-6 run and narrowed down the gap to 37-33 by the end of opening half.
Fever opened the 3rd quarter on a 7-0 burst and reclaimed their double-digit 44-33 lead. Shortly afterwards Petrovic came up with a jumper for Sky and initiated a 12-5 spurt. With this run they shaved off the lead to
50-45. However Indiana raced away after reeling a 14-6 run, with this they capped of the segment at 64-51.
Indiana could only stretch their lead to 68-55 in the 4th frame, when Sky came up with a 12-nothing spurt and narrowed the gap to 68-67. After some seesaw action with 1:11 in hand Sky managed to take a slender 76-75
lead. But with 22.3 clicks to go in fourth, January came up with a free throw and tied the scores at 76, forcing the game into overtime.
Cash opened the overtime with a jumper and inched Sky out of the stalemate, 78-76 but Fever rebutted with a 9-4 burst and claimed an 85-82 lead.
With 20.6 clicks to expire Sky came as close as 87-86, however Douglas netted a pair from free throw line and allowed Fever to bag the game with a 2 points margin, 88-86.
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