Starry, starry night for victorious Sky
Change of plans.
Chicago Sky guard Epiphanny Prince was looking forward to spending time with family and friends back home in New York City during the WNBA’s all-star break this weekend.
“I was all packed to go home,” said Prince, who grew up in Brooklyn. “I wasn’t expecting this.”
On Tuesday night, via the public-address announcer at Allstate Arena, Prince found out about halfway through the Sky’s game against the Seattle Storm that she had been selected to represent the Eastern Conference in Saturday’s showcase game in San Antonio.
Prince then spent the rest of her evening sending the Storm packing.
She scored 17 of her 23 points in the second half to help the Sky get a 78-69 victory over Seattle, the WNBA’s defending champion. The win pulls the Sky to 8-8 on the season and drops Seattle to 7-7.
The good news for the Sky didn’t stop there.
Center Sylvia Fowles, who scored a team-high 24 points, and rookie point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who added 11 points and 7 assists, also made the Eastern Conference all-star team.
Fowles, a three-time all-star, leads the league in scoring (20.4 points per game) and blocks (2.6 bpg), while Prince ranks No. 1 in steals at 3.3 per game. She also is averaging 16.2 points.
Vandersloot leads all rookies with 4.7 assists per game, seventh in the league overall.
So what does having three all-stars, more than any other team in the Eastern Conference, say about the Sky?
“(It says) I need to win more games with three all-stars,” Sky coach Pokey Chatman joked.
The Sky looked like a team with three all-stars in pulling away from Seattle in the fourth quarter.
Fourth-quarter closes haven’t exactly been a Sky specialty this season. But the Sky kicked its defense into high gear and scored 12 points off 5 Storm turnovers in the final period.
Back-to-back steals by Michelle Snow and Prince with about three minutes to play quickly stretched a 2-point Sky lead to 7 points,
“We were just trying to be aggressive on defense,” said Prince, who earns an all-star spot in her second season in the league. “And smart.”
On the game, the Sky forced the Storm into 17 turnovers and scored 30 points off those turnovers.
The Storm got a game-high 26 points out of guard Sue Bird, who was 4-for-8 from 3-point land. Center Ashley Robinson had 14 points for Seattle, while forward Swin Cash added 10 points.
The Storm was playing its ninth straight game without forward Lauren Jackson, who is recuperating from surgery on her left hip. She was the WNBA’s most valuable player last season.
ŸPatricia Babcock McGraw, who covers the WNBA for the Daily Herald, also provides color commentary for Chicago Sky broadcasts.