Fowles gets tough and gets ejected, but Sky holds on
Mom probably won't be happy.
But Sylvia Fowles' coaches and teammates are thrilled that she finally took a stand.
The 6-foot-6 Chicago Sky center has taken a beating all summer in the post, fighting off two, three, four defenders at a time as the focus of every team's defense.
She gets pushed and banged, hacked and harassed, and that's on a quiet day.
On Tuesday night with the Phoenix Mercury visiting Allstate Arena, Fowles was anything but quiet, and her roar helped spur the Sky to an emotional and hard-fought 91-82 victory over the defending WNBA champions.
"My mother would not be proud of me," Fowles said. "I was not sugar lips tonight."
Indeed, Fowles had a bit of vinegar for the referees.
Usually, she puts her head down, goes to work and says nothing as she endures the endless physical abuse. But with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Fowles raised her head - and put her foot down. Enough is enough.
She thought she had been hacked on the offensive end, argued the non-call and then was hit with a technical. She kept going and was quickly teed up again.
Two technicals result in an automatic ejection and the removal of the player from the bench.
"I just try to do my job as much as possible and not get in trouble," Fowles said after the game from the locker room, where she watched on TV as her team salted away the victory. "But you get to a point in time where it's just ridiculous. I mean, I know I'm big, I know I'm strong, but a foul is a foul. This was my time to vent out and let it all out because I've been dealing with it all season. I hated to leave my team out there, but at the same time, they need to understand what I'm dealing with.
"I think it put a spark in my teammates. They've never seen me turn into the Hulk before and they were happy that I stood up for myself and finally said something to the referees."
Happy, then concerned.
When Fowles left the game, the Sky had a 12-point lead on the Mercury. But considering the Mercury leads the WNBA in scoring (97 points per game) and can put points on the board in a hurry, the worry was that the Sky might not be able to hold on without Fowles on the floor.
Fowles left the game with a team-high 24 points and 14 rebounds.
But the Sky, which moves to 13-17 but is now officially eliminated from the playoff picture because Washington also got a victory Tuesday night, hung tough defensively and never saw its lead fall below 7 points.
The icing on the cake was when Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi (game-high 28 points) was forced to join Fowles back in the locker- room area with about 30 seconds left in the game. She was called for her second technical when she got into a scuffle with Sky forward Mistie Bass.
Bass also received a technical.
"You just get fed up," Bass said. "No one is going to come into our place and bully us. I felt like that's what they were doing and they were getting away with it. We felt like we needed to make a statement and not let that happen."
Epiphanny Prince led a strong output from the Sky bench with 16 points.
Candice Dupree, who was traded prior to the season after a four-year career with the Sky, scored 13 points for the Mercury in her first game back in Chicago.