Dupree, Fowles lead Sky in 64-57 win over Storm

In a recent film session, Chicago Sky guard Armintie Price talked about the importance of closing out games.

In the past, the Sky has had difficulty withstanding late runs by opponents. Even seemingly solid leads would evaporate as older, more experienced, more savvy teams would inevitably steal a victory.

"Armintie said that this year we have to be able to weather the storm in games," Sky forward Candice Dupree said. "No pun intended, but we were able to do that tonight. We showed some resiliency."

Indeed, despite seeing an 8-point lead shrink to as few as 2 with 89 seconds remaining, the Sky weathered the Storm on Sunday afternoon in front of 2,681 fans at the UIC Pavilion.

Thanks to double-digit scoring from four players and clutch free throw-shooting in the final seconds, the Sky won 64-57 over Seattle, a perennial playoff team that features two of the best players in the league in point guard Sue Bird and forward Lauren Jackson.

"Now, going forward, this is going to give (us) even more confidence to finish a game," Sky coach Steven Key said. "The big thing for us is that we wanted to defend at home. We feel we are very, very good here and we want to make sure other teams come in here knowing they have to be ready."

The victory is the second straight for the Sky, which also won its home opener Friday against Atlanta. The 2-0 start at home is a first for the four-year-old franchise.

The Sky (2-1) also notched its first win ever against the Storm, which had won all six previous meetings.

"Seattle is a playoff team," said Dupree, who scored a team-high 14 points. "I think beating them says a lot about where we are right now."

The Sky was up by as many as 16 points in the first half, but Seattle kept hanging around and pulled to with 34-24 at halftime.

An 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter allowed the Storm to tie the game at 49-49 with 8:17 left before the Sky eventually went up 59-53 on jumpers by Jia Perkins (13 points) and Dominique Canty (10 points).

But Jackson, who scored a game-high 22 points, scored 4 straight to pull Seattle to within a bucket with 1:29 left. From there, the Sky played tough defense and closed with a 5-0 run on free throws by Canty and Sylvia Fowles (12 points).

"We really needed stops and we buckled down and got them," Perkins said. "Every win right now is crucial for us. We want to win early (in order to be in the playoff race). We don't want to put ourselves in the same predicament we did last year, having to depend on other teams to get in."