Sylvia Fowles stars as Chicago Sky overpower San Antonio Silver Stars 77-63 - WNBA Recap
On Wednesday night, San Antonio Silver Stars hosted the first game of the season against Chicago Sky here at AT&T Center.
Sky used full advantage of their height and with the help of Sylvia Fowles’ 23 points and 12 boards handed over a 77-63 defeat to the Silver Stars.
Apart of Fowles, Epiphanny Prince poured in 22 and had 6 boards while forward Swin Cash tallied 12 points. Ruth Riley chipped in with 10 and Sky improved to 2-1 in the 16th WNBA season.
Chicago outscored San Antonio 40-26 in the glass and 13-6 in second-chance points.
San Antonio coach Dan Hughes was compelled to praise Fowles, as her 12 rebounds kept Silver Stars at bay.
``Fowles is about as good as it gets at that position,'' Dan Hughes said. ``We had to do things by team concept . . . we weren't strong enough. We just weren't strong enough to do that.”
Sky were 76.5% from the floor while Silver Stars shot 53.8%. They succumbed to the pressure as only 2 players managed to hit double figure index. Becky Hammon tried to keep up the fight as she netted 21 and dished out 5 assists while Danielle Robinson scored 13 points.
Due to Sky’s size advantage they always had an upper hand, however the game had many twists and turns in it.
Silver Stars opened the game with an 8-5 burst but Chicago clawed that off with a 6-nothing run and claimed an 11-8 lead midway into the 1st frame. The game remained close after wards as with 29.9 seconds reaming in the period, Sky were having a fragile, 20-18 lead. Prince came up with a pair of deuce and Chicago concluded the frame after augmenting their advantage to 22-18.
Sky held Silver Stars scoreless for more than 5 minutes in the 2nd period. Chicago defence (Fowles and Riley) had 7 rebounds and 2 block shots in the following passage. While the offensive unit kept on scoring and with 4:00 in hand they had claimed a double-digit 35-25 lead. As the teams headed towards their locker rooms Sky were up with 40-29.
Dan Hughes reiterated that Fowles and Riley forced them to melt down in the second.
"Several times I thought offensively we had a chance to gain momentum,'' Hughes said. `` (But Fowles) would get on the glass in a way that would just overpower us. Defensively she's a factor. We didn't get finishes in that area like we would like to.''
Chicago ballooned their advantage to 51-37 early in the third. The hosts tried to harness the lead and came up with an 8-2 run, reducing the gap to 53-45. But they couldn’t come any closer and the game entered into its last 10 minutes with Sky enjoying a 59-51 advantage.
Sky cruised through the final stanza and with 1:26 on clock they were having 10 points, 72-62 lead. As the time expired San Antonio could only reduce the margin of their defeat to 77-63.
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