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ATLANTA — As the seconds ticked down, Stephanie White was agonizing over if she should call a timeout.
Her team was down one point in a winner-take-all, decisive Game 3 battle against No. 3 Atlanta. The Fever were the underdogs by a long shot, but they were staying in the game down to the final seconds.
Kelsey Mitchell tried to bounce the ball into the paint for Aliyah Boston as the seconds ticked down on the clock, but Boston lost control of the ball. Mitchell corralled it back, flinging it out to Odyssey Sims at the 3-point line as Dream center Brionna Jones fell. With Boston open, Sims threw the ball back into Boston in the paint, and she jumped up for a go-ahead layup.
The dagger.
“It was, ‘Do I call time out? Do I call time out? Do I call time out?’” White said. “But we had them in rotation, you know, we had them scrambling and, you know, the hustle play for Kels to be able to keep the ball alive, and then O to be able to see AB loose was huge.”
For the first time in the second half, the No. 6 Indiana Fever were leading the Atlanta Dream. They just needed to defend for the next seven seconds.
And defend they did.
Indiana’s defense out of the timeout was so stifling that Atlanta guard Rhyne Howard had to call a timeout to avoid getting a five-second penalty. That gave Indiana a glimpse at what play they were trying to run for a final attempt: They were trying to get it to Jones in the paint.
Out of that timeout, Howard had Fever forward Brianna Turner in her face on the sideline. Howard attempted to bounce the ball to Jones, but Lexie Hull anticipated exactly that sequence.
“(Austin Kelly), our assistant, drew up a play he thought they’d run, and it was really close to what they ended up running,” Hull said. “Especially with such a short amount of time on the clock, like we knew they were gonna try to get it into Bri Jones. I just saw the ball bounce, and it was my opportunity.”
Hull snatched the ball out of the air, running back toward the Fever basket. She then passed it to Boston, who passed it to Sims, aiming to run the clock out, but Atlanta fouled with just 1.2 seconds left.
“I don’t know what happened in the last however many seconds,” White said. “You know when, O had the ball. I thought she dribbled it out, so after that, I didn’t see anything.”
Sims went 1-for-2 at the line, giving Indiana a two-point lead with a second left. Atlanta used its reset timeout to advance the ball, with Howard inbounding again to Jones, who only had time to turn around for an off-balance 3-pointer.
It bounced off the rim.
And the Fever are headed to the WNBA semifinals for the first time in 10 years after an 87-85 win.
“We work so hard, and I think I’m just so proud of our staying with it,” Hull said. “I mean, it’s just insane that we’re like, we’re playing in the semifinals. We believed it, but there’s so many people out there that didn’t, and we got another series. Excited to play some more games in Gainbridge, but right now, we’re just proud and excited and looking forward to the next step.”
The Fever will play the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces, who had a similarly wild finish against the No. 7 Seattle Storm. Indiana and Las Vegas will tip off at Michelob Ultra Arena at 3 p.m. Sunday, and continue the series in Las Vegas at at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The series will return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Friday, Sept. 26, time to be announced.
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at capeterson@gannett.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter.
