Sky weathers storm, stays in playoff race

Stormy skies?

Not on Friday night. Not at the UIC Pavilion, anyway.

The Chicago Sky has had a habit of building leads only to give them away. And it looked like the same thing was going to happen against the New York Liberty.

But this time -

"We learned how to weather the storm," Sky coach Steven Key said.

The Sky had built an 8-point halftime lead and increased it to 10 points 20 seconds into the third quarter. But before you could say "not this time," the Liberty had cut its deficit to 2.

Then the sun came out and those stormy skies cleared.

Sky rookie guard Kristi Toliver scored 13 of her career-high 25 points in the third quarter to lift the Sky, playing its fourth straight game without center Sylvia Fowles (ankle sprain), to a 96-77 victory over New York in front of 3,707.

The Sky, which moves to 14-13 and ties a franchise record for wins in a season, stays alive in a very tight race for the last playoff spot in the WNBA's Eastern Conference. Heading into the game, the Sky was tied with Washington for fifth place and was just a half-game behind Detroit for fourth with six games left.

Only four teams in each conference make the playoffs.

"As long as we're playing defense we're able to weather the storm," said Sky forward Candice Dupree, who poured in a game-high 26 points. "When we play it for 40 minutes we can win ballgames."

The Sky may have had a few defensive lapses, but not many.

As Toliver started heating up on the offensive end, New York was hassled by an overplaying Sky defense that forced 17 turnovers and racked up 11 steals.

"We had defensive energy," Key said. "I had told them that if they came out with that scrambling, feisty, gang-team defense that they were going to be happy with the result."

The Sky also got 19 points from guard Jia Perkins and at least 2 points from six other players.

Center Tiffany Jackson, who started in place of Janel McCarville (ankle sprain), topped the Liberty (10-17) with 16 points.