CHICAGO SKY NOTES

• After scoring only 4 points on 2-for-7 from the field in the Sky’s opening night win against Indiana, Gabby Williams poured in 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting in her second career game.

• Fourth-year guard Jamierra Faulkner scored 12 points on 5-for-5 shooting in the first half and led the bench with 14 points in the game.

• Starting point guard Chelsea Hopkins tallied a career-high 7 rebounds in the game, beating her previous high of two.

• Guard Allie Quigley scored 15 points in the fourth quarter after scoring a total of 7 in the first three frames. She finished with a game-high 22 points.

• This is the first time since the 2014 the Sky began the season with a 2-0 record.

NEW YORK LIBERTY NOTES

• Kia Nurse, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, led the New York Bench with 17 points on 5-for-10 shooting in her rookie debut.
• The Liberty finished the game with 10 steals. The team averaged 6.1 steals a game in 2017.
• The team only had nine players dressed as three players were out with injury.
• The Liberty had only 8 turnovers in the game, compared to 15 by Chicago. New York were among the league leaders in turnovers in 2017 with 8 per contest, compared to 16 by their opponents.

CHICAGO SKY POSTGAME QUOTES

GENERAL MANAGER & HEAD COACH AMBER STOCKS

On the game…

“Allie did a number and I made sure the hardwood felt her presence, and it was a great way to christen Wintrust Arena

On the team’s performance the past two games…

“Depth and togetherness. The chemistry, the depth, everybody playing together, working together, at times to a fault, overpassing. But if were going to win by sticking to the next pass philosophy, then I’d rather stick with it and it works than not if it doesn’t work as well. And I think that these guys did a great job and are doing a great job of playing together. The second thing that I want to say that is a common denominator is our defensive anticipation and rotation. We’re doing a great job of staying in sync defensively, and teams are gonna score points. No pro game is going to have a score of 86-0. Points are going to be scored. However, can you go the long haul of the game and take teams out of what they do best. And right now our team is doing a great job of playing together and winning that.”

On the rotation…

“Well, the beauty of how we practice is that everybody’s skill sets are made evident so you know who can bring what to the table at that point in time. So we know if we need to manage the pace of the game and get it from flow to set, J can bring that to the table. We know if we need some extra effort on the rebounding edge, we know Cheyenne Parker or Alaina Coates can bring that to the table. So everyone has a special puzzle piece that they offer and it’s just a matter that every game is going to be different, and for today’s game Copper, J, and Allie. Cheyenne, and Stef were the ones that brought us home.”

On team’s camaraderie…

“They’re great, they have great camaraderie, amazing chemistry. They’ve bought into the game, bought into Chicago, but more importantly they have bought into each other. They really work and will go all out for each other. They’re always telling each other ‘good pass’, or  ‘pass it better’, telling each other good shot, or shoot it better. They’re giving each other the kind of love you’d expect from a family.”

On Gabby’s performance and comfortability…

“Yeah, I mean she’s in her second game of her rookie season, she’ll be just fine.”

On the rookie group progression and performance…

“I’ll start with Linnae Harper, who hasn’t seen the floor yet in a game, but works hard everyday in practice. She runs scout, works hard, and is just a great teammate – knows her role, and will become a great player in time. Alaina Coates has gone from slow and steady, to [being on a] galloping trot. She’s really coming along and she’s been a pleasant surprise to a lot of people. We knew what she could do, but she has even surprised us at times with the way she develops every day. It’s almost like watching a toddler, how they’re changing every day, doing something new. And that’s Alaina right now. Gabby and Diamond have to adjust and they are adjusting to our style of play and understanding that it’s more of a cerebral game with how (especially) Allie and J play. They’ve got to be in tune with the timing of things and they’re timing will continue to develop and will continue to get more and more in sync with (the timing) and spacing. Gabby can adjust and space a little bit better than she is. And Diamond will understand timing and next-pass philosophy, as she was overpassing today and passed up a couple opportunities where she could have capitalized on some things for our team.

On second half adjustments…

“New York was doing a good job at attacking the baseline, so at halftime we made it a focus on really cutting off the baseline drives. Offensively, we knew that we needed to get a little more fluidity going from our flow game into our motion [offense]. We focused on that at halftime, especially having to have a higher lease against the pressure of New York.”

On Cheyenne Parker’s performance, especially in the fourth quarter…

“I don’t even know how to describe her. She’s a coach’s dream and at the same time, she’s a coach’s nightmare. Sometimes I wake up at night with a cold sweat wondering what [Parker] is going to do with the ball and it works for her, and it works for us. That’s just how she plays and you have to just take it. You have to take her for who she is. Her hustle plays, her rebounding and the way she has no fear. In her mind, nobody that she can’t guard, no rebound she can’t get and no and-one she can’t score.”

On Cheyenne Parker and Alaina Coates’ chemistry…

“That’s something that has been an ongoing development. Right now, her best highlights to watch are [Coates] and [Parker] with each other. They play well together, they communicate well [and] sometimes I think they’re speaking their own language that some of us don’t really understand, and they are very much in sync with each other. When you talk about lineup system, they spend a lot of time with each other in practice and a lot of time with Alex [Montgomery]. Alex Montgomery has taken those two under her wing and has done a great job of being a leader to Cheyenne and [Alaina] in getting them in sync with each other. Don’t discount Alex Montgomery’s role in that.”

GUARD JAMIERRA FAULKNER

On the system/rotation…

“I bought in to the system. At first, it was different, it’s something I wasn’t used to, but to see it actually take place in a game, it’s actually working. We have fresh legs, Tina Charles noticed too. She said ‘oh you got a whole new five in there?’

On recovering from her Injury last year…

“My knee is great. I’m 100% and Coach Amber, I’m glad she brought me back. It shows that she believes in me and that she loves my game and what I can do.”

GUARD ALLIE QUIGLEY

On her aggressiveness in crunch time…

“I think I want to be aggressive all the time, it just happened to be in the fourth quarter this time. We talked about it in the locker room that we had 20 assists on 30 field goals, so the ball was moving and my teammates were finding me, so that’s [a good thing]”

On this year’s rookie class…

Not very often you get three top-3 picks in one year – that’s kind of what it feels like. They’re definitely very athletic and they bring a lot of things. We had a pretty good class a couple years ago, but this is a good one though.”

NEW YORK LIBERTY POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH KATIE SMITH

On the shift in the game…

“We’ve got to hit shots. They hit shots, and we didn’t. That was honestly the biggest thing. We’ve got to make them more uncomfortable, but they shot at 46, almost 47% and we shot at like 37. So again, we’ve got to take good shots and then make them.”

On the impact of playing away versus at home…

“We haven’t had a game at home yet, so I don’t think so. I think it’s mostly that we missed some easy ones. Again, it’s just shooting with confidence. Some nights you have it like that, but then that’s when you put a lot of pressure on your defense. I think our players were locked in; just didn’t get it done.”

On looking at improvements for the season…

“Boxing out, getting after loose balls, and finding our groove on the offensive end, and stepping in having that confidence.”

CENTER TINA CHARLES

On confidence going into the game…

“I mean, I’m just trying to win the game. My entire career I’ve been the go to person, so I’m just trying to help on the offensive and defensive end. We’ve got to make more shots. We only shot 36%, so that definitely helped us, but New York Liberty, we pride ourselves on defense, and we just have to do a better job.”

On the team’s morale during the game…

“That’s just my role, but that’s everyone’s role to bring their energy. It’s everyone’s role to be a star in your own role. Whatever it is that you’re supposed to do, do it all the time. With myself, I’m not the only one that brings energy to the team. I think everyone did. Especially off the bench. I think Amanda Zahui B did a great job establishing herself down there and I think Mercedes Russell coming in her first game in her career. I think everyone brought a little bit of each other and what they were supposed to do. It’s just defense, getting on the boards, making them more uncomfortable.”

On adjustments for the next game…

“The next game we play is Minnesota. I know each of those individuals on that team. They’ve got Tanisha Wright who’s a great defender. It’s going to be a harder game. We’ve got to be more aggressive. We’ve got to take ownership of our mistakes and what we do. That’s just the way we have to go out and play moving forward.”

ROOKIE GUARD KIA NURSE

On confidence going into the game…

“I think I was excited to play, to finally get one under my belt. But, I think I’ve been trying to, within practice, to work on the confidence, make sure my teammates can be confident in me, and earn a sense of trust there. So, they helped me out through the whole entire thing making sure I was ready to go.”

On the team’s morale during the game…

“For me personally as a player, one of the big things I always want to do is bring as much energy as possible. For me it genuinely stems from my defensive end, and then that’s where the offense stems from. So, trying to make sure each and every game I come out with energy on the defensive end to help make sure that the offensive end runs smoothly.

On adjustments for the next game…

“I think obviously there’s a couple things we want to clean up within the game. After watching game film and making sure that we change some things defensively, just execute a little bit better, and then hustle plays towards the end. I think they had shots falling there, and for us it was a matter of knocking some down towards the end.”