Fowles leads Sky past Silver Stars 77-63
SAN ANTONIO — Sylvia Fowles had 23 points and 12 rebounds, helping the Chicago Sky dominate the smaller San Antonio Silver Stars for a 77-63 victory Wednesday night.
The Sky used their height advantage to rally and take control of the game. San Antonio started 6-foot-1 forwards Sophia Young and Danielle Adams against 6-6 Fowles and 6-5 Ruth Riley.
"Fowles is about as good as it gets at that position," San Antonio coach Dan Hughes said. "We had to do things by team concept . . . we weren't strong enough. We just weren't strong enough to do that."
The Sky outscored the Silver Stars 40-26 in the paint and 13-6 in second-chance points.
Becky Hammon finished with 21 points for San Antonio. Young had nine points and Danielle Robinson added 13.
Epiphanny Prince scored 22 points for the Sky, Swin Cash had 12 and Riley added 10.
Fowles had five straight points off post feeds from Courtney Vandersloot to give Chicago an 11-8 lead they would never relinquish.
"Every time," Sky coach Pokey Chatman yelled at Vandersloot. "Every time. There is no answer for it. They're either going to double team or have play her straight."
The Silver Stars subbed in 6-4 center Jayne Appel after Fowles was fouled to set up her fifth point. Appel put a temporary end to the Sky's inside dominance, grabbing an offensive rebound immediately after checking in.
"Jayne did an excellent job on that (offensive rebounding)," Adams said. "Just doing the little things, (like) hustling for the ball; we've just got to be better on that. It was a lot of little positives we can take
The Silver Stars were held scoreless for nearly five minutes in the second quarter while shooting 27.8 from the field during the period. Appel's layup with 56.5 seconds remaining was San Antonio's first points since Jia Perkins hit a 3-pointer at the 5:53 mark.
Fowles and Riley combined for seven rebounds and two blocked shots in the second quarter.
"Several times I thought offensively we had a chance to gain momentum," Hughes said. "(But Fowles) would get on the glass in a way that would just overpower us. Defensively she's a factor. We didn't get finishes in that area like we would like to."