STAR OF THE GAME
Tamika Catchings
Finishing with her third double-double of the season, Catchings had a game-high 15 rebounds and 17 points in her 37 minutes of play. She added four assists and one steal.
UNSUNG HERO
Katie Douglas
Douglas led the team in scoring, finishing the game with 19 points including three 3-pointers. She also grabbed three rebounds and four assists.
QUOTABLE
Lin Dunn
In General:
"San Antonio is a very good team. We didn't match their intensity. We won the first half, they won the second. We have to play a whole game."

Katie Douglas
On where the Fever can go from here
"We don't have an option. We need to come in tomorrow and get better, make some adjustments and get ready for a really big game against Chicago."

HIDDEN NUMBERS
Points in the paint:
Fever 10, Silver Stars 36
Second-chance points:

Fever 5, Silver Stars 7
Fast-break points:

Fever 7, Silver Stars 12
Points off turnovers:

Fever 15, Silver Stars 13
Starters scoring:

Fever 57, Silver Stars 53
Bench scoring:

Fever 15, Silver Stars 35
A Tale Of Two Halves

Team Record 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
San Antonio 9-5 11 17 29 31 88
at Indiana 8-6 23 20 16 13 72

Gameday Spotlight: TheWguy Returns To Indy

By Tom Rietmann | July 5, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Fever players sat quietly in their locker room Thursday night as they grappled with the fallout of an 88-72 loss to the visiting San Antonio Silver Stars.

The Fever, uncharacteristically, came unglued in the second half. After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Indiana team gave up 60 in the second and got outscored by 31 as it yielded 72.2 percent shooting to San Antonio in the final two quarters.

Saying it was a tale of two halves would be an understatement. Fever forward Tamika Catchings, who recorded the 75th double-double of her career with 17 points and 15 rebounds, slumped at her locker afterward.

�The first half, we played really well together and moved the ball,� Catchings said. �The second half, it was like everybody trying to do everything by themselves, me included.

�It's just frustrating,� the 2011 league MVP said, �because we're too good of a team to be in situations like this. � When you look around this locker room and you look at the players we have, it's just disappointing to be losing games like this. We come in at halftime, we're up, everybody's smiling, everybody did the right things. We come out (in the second half) and we don't do the same thing. It's like, where did the team go?�

Indiana bombarded San Antonio with 3-pointers in the first half, hitting 6-of-7 at one point to capture a 41-23 lead. The Fever hit 9-of-13 treys in the first half before cooling off in the second, but Indiana still totaled 12 for the game. It marked Indiana's fourth game this season with 12 or more 3-pointers, which had occurred a total of only three times in the franchise's 12 seasons before 2012.

But the early 3-point success, perhaps, gave the Fever a false sense of security.

�We kind of fell in love with the 3 and didn't get into the paint like they did,� Fever Coach Lin Dunn said, looking at the statistics sheet. �You can see the difference there. They had 36 points in the paint, we had 10, and I thought our defense was just low energy.�

For Indiana, it was simply a clunky second half. The Fever hit just 10-of-33 shots from the field and 3-of-13 from the 3-point arc in the final 20 minutes. The home team was outrebounded 22-14. Three San Antonio players scored in double digits in the final two quarters, led by Becky Hammon with 14 that led to her team-high 19 for the game.

�I thought we came out and played extremely well (in the first half),� said Fever guard Katie Douglas, who led Indiana with 19 points. �We were high energy in the first half, and they looked disrupted. They just kind of flipped the script on us in the second half. � We came out flat, and we came out, for some reason, a little out of it.�

The Fever played the second half without guard Erin Phillips, who suffered concussion-like symptoms after catching an elbow while rebounding late in the second quarter. Dunn said Phillips' absence significantly altered the Fever's player rotations, causing Douglas and point guard Briann January to play more minutes.

But Indiana's problems extended beyond that, including �some bad decisions� in the last two quarters, Dunn said.

�You have to give San Antonio credit,� the coach said. �They are very good. They got hot, and I didn't think we matched their level of intensity and effort in the second half.�

Dunn has praised her team in the past for its �tough-minded� approach and perseverance. That will get a stern test on Saturday night when Indiana (8-6) meets Chicago (8-5) at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

�We have to rally and re-focus and get ready for Chicago,� Dunn said. �Everybody's good. Just because you're home doesn't mean it's an automatic win. Hopefully, we can learn from this experience. You have to play two full halves. You have to play hard and smart, and you have to deal with adversity.�

Postgame Notes:

  • With tonight's win the Silver Stars end the Fever�s two-game winning streak in the series, and its three-game home winning streak vs. San Antonio,
  • Having come from a game-high 18 points down to post a 16-point win, the Silver Stars registered the second largest turn around (34 points) by an opponent in Fever history, and the largest since the Charlotte Sting had a 43-point swing in points in 2003 (8/20/03).
  • With her 17 points and season-high 15 rebounds, Tamika Catchings registered the 75th double-double of her career, tying her with former Tennessee teammate Chamique Holdsclaw for fifth most in WNBA history. Catchings is one double-double short of tying Seattle�s Lauren Jackson for fourth on the all-time list.
  • With its 12 3-pt FG, the Fever has made 10 or more 3-pt FG in five of 14 games and four of its six home games. The Fever has averaged 9.3 3-pt FGM this season, well on its way to breaking the record the Phoenix Mercury set in 2007 with 8.30 3-pt FG per game.
  • The Fever has made 12 or more 3-pt FG four times this season (in 14 games). Prior to 2012, Indiana had made at least 12 3-pt jus three times in 12 seasons.
  • While Indiana was 6-8 from 3-pt range in the second quarter, it made just one of its 11 shots from 2-pt range.
  • Briann January�s 18 points tonight featured a career-high tying four 3-pt FG (4-6).
  • The Silver Stars outscored the Fever, 36-10, in the paint tonight and Indiana�s total was its lowest of the season.
  • With no player having more than one, the Fever had a season-low four steals tonight.
  • Including Jeanette Pohlen�s nine points on 3-4 3-pt FG, the Indiana bench had just 15 points, its third of 15 or less this season, and its fewest in the last seven games.
  • San Antonio�s 60 points in the second half tied the second most points in a half by an opponent in Fever history. It is the most points ever allowed by Indiana in a half at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
  • Having shot 52.2 percent from the floor tonight, the Silver Stars are just the second Indiana opponent to shoot 50+ percent from the field this season. San Antonio shot 26-36 FG (.722) in the second half, after shooting just 10-33 FG (.303) in the first half.