KEY STAT:

• After trailing by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, the Indiana Fever came back to force overtime before falling 81-87 after the extra period. The 20-point come-from-behind effort would have set a new franchise record for the largest comeback in Fever franchise history.
• New York shot just 39 percent from the field, but finished the game shooting 30-for-32 from the free throw line compared to 12-for-18 by Indiana.

KEY RUN:

• The Fever outscored the Liberty 42-25 in the third and fourth quarters while holding New York to 28.6 percent shooting.

INDIANA NOTES:

• The Fever fell to 0-6 on the season, which is now the longest losing streak to begin a season in team history. However, the combined record for Indiana’s first six opponents is now 16-8.
• Rookie guard Kelsey Mitchell continued her strong play to begin the season as she scored a season-high 26 points on 9-for-17 shooting and 5-for-9 from three-point range. She has scored 20+ points in three of the first six games of her WNBA career.
• Kelsey Mitchell reached 100 points on the season in tonight’s game. Only five players in WNBA history have reached the 100-point mark in fewer games (Ruthie Bolton, 1997; Nikki McCray, 1998; Tamika Catchings, 2002; Seimone Augustus, 2006; Cappie Pondexter, 2006).
• Candice Dupree finished with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds. She added 12 points and five rebounds in the second half and overtime. Her basket tied the game at 69-69 with 1:15 left in regulation.
• Erica Wheeler finished with 14 points and a team-high seven assists. She moved into eighth place in Fever franchise history in career assists ahead of Rita Williams (255) in tonight’s game.
• Tiffany Mitchell finished with 10 points on 5-for-9 shooting. She has reached double figures in four of the team’s six games.
• The Fever forced a season-high 21 turnovers that resulted in 22 points.

NEW YORK NOTES:

• The Liberty evened their record at 2-2 on the season, and earned their first road win of the season.
• Rookie guard Kia Nurse posted her best outing of her young career with 34 points, nine rebounds and four assists in 40 minutes off the bench. Nurse attempted half of New York’s free throws on the night and finished 15-for-16 from the stripe.
• Tina Charles posted her third consecutive double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds. She sank two free throws with 8.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to force overtime.
• Former Fever guard Shavonte Zellous finished with 17 points for New York.

Quoting Fever Head Coach Pokey Chatman

“We have to maintain a higher level of play at both ends of the floor for longer than 32 minutes. We continue having lapses in play that seem to bury us.”

“[The Liberty] were aggressive and knocked us off some of our cuts on offense. And I thought we settled sometimes with some of our shots. They were physical with us and we let it affect us.”

“There are no little things. I know that even I have used that term. Those things that people on the outside call ‘little things,’ they’re big things. Getting rebounds, getting to loose balls, not settling for jumpers instead of getting to the rim. Those are all big things that we have to begin doing more consistently.”

Quoting the Fever’s Candice Dupree

(On the Liberty’s offensive run in the first to second quarters)
“They got more physical with us. They were taking away passing lanes, getting us out of our offense. They just became more aggressive. I think once again our defense is predicated off our offense and it can’t be. Settling for jumpers, people were missing shots and we just stopped playing defense. Can’t let that happen.”

(On the positives in the second half)
“We’ve shown that we can play defense, we just need to do it for 40 minutes now. We got down in the stance and took away whatever it was that they were trying to do. We were able to get rebounds and push it down the other end. But we can’t put ourselves in a 20 point hole.”

Quoting the Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell
(On the being buried in the first half)
“Not following through with knowing what’s going on, on the court. Lack of focus. Just not finishing defensively.”

(On how they came out mentally in the second half)
“Get tired of losing. Everybody in here talking about how young we are and everything else. But just tired of losing. So I think that was the difference in the first and second half.”

Quoting Liberty Head Coach Katie Smith

“Tough game. They’re hard to play because they never stop and they can score in bunches. The guards are a really, really hard match up. And then Dupree (Candice) is just real smooth and solid. Happy about our fight. Made plays when we needed to and snuck up out here with a win.”

(On going into the overtime, what did you tell your team?)
“We’ve got to get stops. Yeah we’ll get buckets. We’ll get it on the other end. We had to find a way to get them up on the rim, go get them rebounds, because they outworked us a little bit in regular time. Tina (Charles) finally got some shots to go down for her. Kia Nurse had a heck of a ball game, but again the defensive side of getting those stops, getting down there and getting a score.”

Quoting the Liberty’s Kia Nurse

“I thought it was a good battle as a team. We fought through some adversity there. I think we came back, played together and got some stops. (We) had some key contributions from a lot of different people and some key plays down the stretch.”

(On the difference between the first and second half)
“Obviously I think in the first quarter we fixed some things coming out towards the second. In the second half, obviously, they made some shots and made their run. It was a matter of trying to execute the offense and get some defensive stops.”

Quoting the Liberty’s Tina Charles

“We had that game. I want to say we were up (20). They came back. They’re searching for a win. They’re gonna work hard. That’s all they know. They’re young players, but kudos to Kia Nurse. Being a rookie and having 34, she really held us down this game.”

(On first and second half)
“The second half, I wanna say they punched us first. I think when we came out in the first quarter we were kind of slow and (Shavonte Zellous) had to tell us we had to pick it up. In the second quarter, we came out and played really hard. The third quarter, they came out and they punched us first. They had a lot of energy, they had the momentum, they had the crowd behind them. We just came out and we were resilient, we didn’t give up. The two plus free throws at the end, that help us out a lot.”