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Before 19,601 strong at the United Center, the Chicago Sky sought redemption as they took on the Indiana Fever.
Redemption from the nearly 40-point loss they suffered against the Seattle Storm on Thursday. Some expected another demoralizing loss considering who was not on the floor. Angel Reese was out due to back problems. Ariel Atkins was out with a leg injury. Hailey Van Lith was out with an ankle injury. All in all, five players were out. Michaela Onyenwere was available to play after sitting out on Thursday with a knee injury.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Clark was still out for the Fever. But they maintained their core of Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham and Natasha Howard.
The Sky jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game. But soon thereafter, the Fever took over the first quarter led by the exploits of Mitchell, who would carry the team on her back for the entirety of the game. After the first quarter, the Sky trailed 26-13 and had nine turnovers to their name, a consistent problem for the team all season. The Fever capitalized by scoring 14 points off of those turnovers.
The Sky began to regroup in the second quarter and managed to claw their way back into the game. They did so by converting on good shoots, hitting at the free throw line, scoring inside and shooting from the 3-point line. Particularly, it was Rachel Banham, Rebecca Allen and Kia Nurse who were hitting those shots from beyond the arc. Kamilla Cardoso was doing the dirty work in the paint.
As a result, the Sky trailed 51-39 at the half after keeping the second quarter competitive at 26-25.
In the third quarter, the Sky began to reclaim the momentum. They went on a 13-5 run and at one point found themselves trailing just 56-55 thanks to a big jumper by Maddy Westbeld. But there was no stopping the Fever as Mitchell and company regained the momentum and found themselves leading 75-61 after three quarters. Though the Sky went on a 10-2 run midway through the fourth quarter, it wasn’t enough as the Fever sealed the win, 93-78.
Mitchell led all scorers with 35 points. Boston and Makayla Timpson each scored 14 points.
However, the Sky were upbeat in defeat, pleased with the effort they put into it. Altogether, they did turn the ball over 20 times, but they outshot the Fever 40 percent to 37.9 percent on 3-pointers, a major breakthrough for a team that has struggled in that category.
Much of that long-distance success was driven by Banham, who finished with a season-high of 26 points, highlighted by six 3-pointers. Though she turned the ball over seven times, she dished out five assists and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Overall, Banham shot 53.5 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from the 3-point line. Allen added three 3-pointers of her own, finishing with 13 points as well as four assists. Nurse also contributed immensely with 14 points, as well as six rebounds.
On the inside, the Sky relied on Cardoso and Elizabeth Williams. Cardoso’s prowess in the paint was evident as she came away with her third-consecutive double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. She was also a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line. Williams was a go-to person for scoring consistently, leading the team in field goal percentage at 66.7 percent; she finished with nine points and eight rebounds.
Another dimension of the game that the Sky had to rely on was their stamina, especially given how thin their roster is. As Nurse explained after the game, the level of competition in the WNBA makes conservation of energy a luxury, saying:
You can’t conserve energy. You don’t have a choice in a WNBA game any night, and so for us, [that is] a lot of it. I think we use that zone a little bit to try and force them to play later in the shot clock. Obviously, this is a team that likes to get out and transition and play. I believe we actually won the fastbreak points. We did 15 to 11. So we also like to get out in transition and run.
But I think for us, it’s a matter of it’s a strategic game. You got to use your timeouts. You got to use the stoppages to play well and give yourselves an opportunity to kind of catch your breath. But at the end of the day, it’s a mental game. Your body is going to get tired, no matter how many minutes that you play every single night. The more mentally you can stay connected to not making a lot of those mistakes that just come from being fatigued, the better it is. I thought we did a really good job of responding today, everybody, and having that mental toughness, knowing that you were going to be down bodies, and you were going to be sucking wind at some point.
