Another fantastic finish for Prince, Sky
A trip to the chiropractor is definitely in order for Chicago Sky guard Epiphanny Prince.
Her back has got to be killing her, the way she continues to toss all of her teammates on for one ride after another.
Yes, she did it again.
Oh yes. She did.
Less than a week after hitting a running, off-balance 3-pointer in Atlanta to force an overtime session that eventually led to a 2-point Sky win, Prince pulled another buzzer-beating, overtime-forcing 3-pointer out of her bag of seemingly endless tricks.
With seven seconds remaining Friday night at Allstate Arena and the Sky trailing the Tulsa Shock by 3 points, Prince dribbled the length of the court and quickly fired off a high-arcing shot from the top of the 3-point line.
Not only did the shot go in at the buzzer, it banked.
The Sky then pulled away in overtime en route to a 98-91 victory over the winless Shock (0-7). With its fourth straight win, the Sky moves to 5-1 on the season and into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with the Connecticut Sun.
“I had a clear look at the basket. I didn’t call (bank),” Prince said with a laugh. “I saw (Tulsa) celebrating (late in the game) and I just got mad. I wanted to do something.”
Prince did much more than that. The buzzer-beater was part of a 32-point night for Prince, who becomes just the second player in WNBA history to log three straight games with at least 30 points. The other is Hall of Famer Cynthia Cooper, who led the Houston Comets to four straight titles in the league’s early years.
Prince entered the game leading the WNBA in scoring at 23.8 points per game and will stay firmly atop that list with her latest outburst.
“Piph has had this in her the whole time,” said Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot, who was one of four other Sky players in double-figures. She had 14 points. “She’s just incredible, just a truly, truly special player. She’s showing herself and everyone else how she really can play.
“She’s the one we want taking that shot. We all have all the confidence in the world in her. She’s the one we want taking that shot every time. Every time. (When the shot went in), it was like, ‘She did it again! How many times can she do this?’”
Prince’s heroics started last Friday at Allstate when she scored 16 of her 31 points in the fourth quarter to help the Sky get a come-from-behind victory against the Washington Mystics.
Somehow she managed to top that the very next night in Atlanta by rolling up 33 points plus the improbable buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Her scoring barrage helped the Sky rally from a deficit that had ballooned to 22 points.
Tamera Young came off the bench to score 16 points for the Sky while Sylvia Fowles scored 14 points and tied a career-high with 21 rebounds for her sixth double-double in as many games.
Swin Cash also finished with 14 points.
This time, the Sky and Shock were nip-and-tuck through much of the first half, with the Sky taking a one-point advantage into halftime.
The Sky got rolling and led by as many as 13 points in the third quarter, but then the Shock began to chip away. By the midway point of the fourth quarter, the Sky, nagged by the Shock’s pressing full-court defense, was down by 7 points.
Tulsa had a tough time hitting free throws down the stretch and that gave the Sky just the opening needed to make a final push. Both Prince and Vandersloot hit big 3-pointers in the final 30 seconds before Prince hit her buzzer-beater.
The Shock, which scored 26 points off of 27 Sky turnovers, also had five players in double-figures, led by Ivory Latta’s 25 points.