Sky-Fever Preview

By JEFF MEZYDLO
Posted Jun 15 2012 11:04PM

The Chicago Sky are off to the best start in franchise history, but they're still struggling to beat the Indiana Fever.

Seeking to avenge their only loss of the season, the Sky hope to extend their club-record winning streak to seven games Saturday night with a rare road victory over a Fever team trying to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat.

Chicago (7-1) is the surprise leader in the Eastern Conference, but its lone defeat came against Indiana, 83-72 in its May 25 home opener. The star tandem of Sylvia Fowles and Epiphanny Prince combined for 38 points, but the Sky allowed the Fever (4-3) to shoot 48.3 percent - well above the 41.1 Chicago is allowing this season.

"They always give us a tough time," Prince told the Sky's official website Wednesday. "Hopefully we play better next game."

That could be tough for the Sky, who are 5-20 all-time versus Indiana. The Fever have won 10 in a row and 11 of 12 at home against Chicago, with the Sky winning 80-73 there Aug. 13, 2006.

"It's going to be hard because Indiana's very scrappy," Fowles said. "It just comes down to us getting it done on the court. Matching their intensity and be just as aggressive as them will mean a lot in this game."

Chicago hopes it finally has the proper mindset to do so while trying to improve to 5-0 on the road. Prince had 17 points and Fowles added 16 with 15 rebounds as the Sky led throughout their 74-58 home rout of lowly Seattle on Wednesday.

While the 6-foot-6 Fowles remains one of the WNBA's most dominant players, averaging 18.3 points and 14.6 rebounds, Prince is putting up a league-best 24.3 points per contest while shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 52.8 percent (28 for 53) from 3-point range.

"When you followed this team (in the past) it was 'limit Syl's touches and flip a coin if someone else can step up,'" coach Pokey Chatman said. "Piph has stepped up and she's drawn a lot of attention so now its Syl and Piph and that third option right now is being spread around."

Fowles likely will be saddled with the responsibility of trying to contain reigning WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings, whose 321 points in 23 career games versus Chicago are the second-most by any opponent against the Sky.

Catchings (20.5 ppg), who scored 22 at Chicago last month, looks to help the Fever avoid losing four straight in the regular season for the first time since a six-game skid July 20-29, 2007. She was held to 15 points and missed a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left in Friday's 67-66 loss at Washington.

Indiana shot 37.1 percent, went 17 for 26 from the free-throw line and was outrebounded 41-32 by a last-place Mystics team that won for the second time in 2012.

Davenport leads Fever to 84-70 win over Sky

Posted Jun 16 2012 10:06PM

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Jessica Davenport scored 19 points to lead the Indiana Fever to an 84-70 victory over the Chicago Sky on Saturday night.

Katie Douglas had 15 points, Briann January added 14 and Tamika Catchings 12 to help Indiana (5-3) snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 21-5 all-time against the Sky.

``Today we just talked about taking every single quarter,'' Catchings said. ``Ten minute quarters. Ten minute games like we do in practice. ... Our bench was huge and (Jessica Davenport) had an amazing game tonight going against Sylvia (Fowles).''

Catchings shot 3 for 12 from the field, but made 6 of 8 from the line to pass Lisa Leslie atop the WNBA's career free throws made list with 1,478.

Davenport broke her own franchise record for field goals made without a miss, going 9 for 9, and also made her only free-throw attempt. She was previously 8 for 8 against Connecticut on June 11, 2010.

``Just wanted to be aggressive,'' Davenport said about guarding Fowles. ``Just try to crowd her and make it difficult. You're not going to be able to completely stop her because she's a great player. But we just wanted to make it as difficult for her as possible.''

Fowles scored 26 points to lead Chicago (7-2). Swin Cash added 15 points and Courtney Vandersloot had 12. Epiphanny Prince, the league's leading scorer at 24.3 points per game coming in, had seven points before leaving late in the second quarter with a right foot injury. She was on crutches after halftime.

Tammy Sutton-Brown's layup with 1 1/2 minutes gone in the third quarter gave Indiana a six-point lead, its biggest of the game at the time. The Sky came back and took a 48-46 lead on Vandersloot's 3 near the midpoint of the period.

Douglas' 3 less than a minute later tied the score at 49 and started a 15-5 run that gave the Fever a seven-point lead with 1 1/2 minutes to go in the third.

Chicago made another run, scoring six consecutive points to pull to 66-65 with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Fever then pulled away for good as Jeanette Pohlen hit a 3 less than 30 seconds later to start a 12-0 run that put them ahead 78-65 on Davenport's layup with 2:24 to go. Davenport's layup with 1 minute left gave Indiana its biggest lead, 84-68.

``I just thought it was a great kind of gut-check win for us,'' Fever coach Lin Dunn said. ``We got great help from the bench, especially Davenport. We moved the ball. We shared the ball. We defended at a high level.''

The Fever closed the first half with a 13-1 run to take a 42-38 lead at the break.

Fowles had 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting in the opening 20 minutes, and Cash added nine points for the Sky. Douglas led Indiana with nine points and January had eight.

Chicago made 12 of its first 13 shots and led 37-29 after Cash's 3-pointer with 3:42 remaining in the first half.

``We did some good things in the first half to give ourselves a chance to win,'' Sky coach Pokey Chatman said. ``Epiphanny going down didn't help. Second half, we didn't contain them the way we needed to. We need to work on defense without fouling and hopefully we'll get on the other side of the coin.''

Douglas then made two 3s around a layup by January to tie score, and Catchings hit two free throws with 1:03 left in the half to put Indiana ahead 39-37 for its first lead since early in the first quarter.

Fowles made a free throw with 50.6 seconds left in the half - Chicago's first points in nearly 3 minutes - and Douglas made a 3 about 23 seconds later to give the Fever their four-point lead.

• Sky: --
• Fever: --

• Sky: --
• Fever: --

• Lead Changes: 6
• Times Tied: 6

• Arena: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
• Officials: #9 Denise Brooks, #46 Tim Greene, #49 Kevin Sparrock
• Attendance: 6098
• Duration: 1:47