Boyette leads Sky over Mercury
One of the reasons California native Imani Boyette, the Chicago Sky's 6-foot-7 rookie center, went to college at the University of Texas was so that she could have the opportunity to play against Brittney Griner.
Griner, the 6-foot-8 dunking machine, was a senior at Baylor and widely considered the top player in the country when Boyette was a freshman. Texas and Baylor squared off twice that year in Big 12 Conference action.
Boyette says she played pretty well in her first game against Griner. The second game … well, not so much.
"In the second game, she ate me up," Boyette said with a laugh. "I think she was like, 'I'm not going to let you do that (play well) again.'"
Round 3 between Boyette and Griner went Boyette's way.
In the first start of her WNBA career Sunday at Allstate Arena, Boyette, starting partially to match up with Griner, came up big. She scored 12 points, pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds and led the Sky to a 100-95 win over Griner and the Phoenix Mercury.
The Sky (8-11) needed the win, having dropped seven of its previous nine games.
"I think (Griner) is a great player, as does the rest of the world," Boyette said. "I was just trying to see how I stack up. That's what rookie year is for, to see how you stack up against the best.
"My teammates helped me out when I made bad decisions, and my coaches trusted me to keep putting me back out there."
The Sky took control of the game late in the second quarter and took a 4-point lead into halftime. Late in the fourth quarter, the lead had ballooned to 9 points.
But Phoenix (8-13) wouldn't go away. Star guard Diana Taurasi hit some tough shots to give the Mercury a short-lived 3-point lead with 1:33 remaining.
Elena Delle Donne answered with a 3-pointer with 26.4 seconds left that gave the Sky a 97-95 lead. The Sky closed out with free throws, surviving a good-looking 3-point shot by Phoenix's DeWanna Bonner with 15.5 seconds left that would have tied the game.
"I told our players after the game that everyone who went in the game contributed something positive," Sky coach Pokey Chatman said. "And at this point, we just needed a win to gain some momentum."
Delle Donne finished with 19 points, just behind guard Allie Quigley, who came off the bench for her second big game in a row. She scored a team-high 21 points after dropping a career-high 29 points on New York on Friday.
Three other Sky players finished in double figures: Courtney Vandersloot had 12 points off the bench, Jamierra Faulkner had 11 points starting at point guard in place of Vandersloot and Tamera Young added 10 points.
Taurasi led five Phoenix players in double-figures with 26 points on four 3-pointers. Bonner had 20 points and former Sky star Candice Dupree added 15 points, as did Marta Xargay.