Sky ends first half of season with win over Fever
Now, the Vegas vacation will be even more fun.
The WNBA is officially on its all-star break, and players from the Chicago Sky won't spoil their time off stewing about missed opportunities because they made sure to end the first half of the season with a bang.
The Sky rebounded emphatically from a lackluster first half on Sunday at Wintrust Arena and wound up pulling out a 78-70 victory over the struggling Indiana Fever, which owned a double-digit lead in the first half.
The Sky, winners of its last four games, are now 11-8 on the season and can fully enjoy the eight-day break surrounding Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas, which will feature Sky all-stars Allie Quigley, Courtney Vandersloot and Diamond DeShields.
Every other player on the Sky roster has made plans to spend her all-star break in Las Vegas to cheer on Quigley, Vandersloot and DeShields.
Indiana, which has now lost five in a row and 9 of its last 10, falls to 6-14.
"This is huge," said Quigley, who tied center Stefanie Dolson with a team-high 19 points. Quigley nailed 4-of-8 three-pointers. "If you have a loss going into an (8-day break), it's just going to sit with you the entire time. It just feels good to get this one and go into (the break) on a high."
The Sky had racked up 11 turnovers by halftime, and Indiana had scored 13 points off those turnovers. In the second half, the Sky had just 7 turnovers and Indiana got just 7 points out of them.
After halftime, the Sky also raised its shooting percentage nearly 15 points. Shooting had been streaky early on as the Sky struggled to make just 30 percent of its shots in the first half.
"I just challenged them (at halftime)," Sky coach James Wade said. "I wanted to know how much they wanted it. I felt like in the first half, they (Indiana) wanted it more.
"We don't have to do that to ourselves. We make it interesting."
DeShields also finished in double-figures with 13 points while forward Jantel Lavender had 8 points to go along with 11 rebounds. Vandersloot, the leading playmaker in the WNBA with more than 8 assists per game, rolled up 14 assists to go along with 9 points.
Guard Erica Wheeler paced Indiana, coached by former Sky head coach Pokey Chatman, with 13 points.
Former Sky star Candice Dupree, also an all-star, added 12 points for the Fever while former Sky forward Betnijah Laney and rookie Teaira McCowan chipped in with 11 points apiece.
Former Fever legend Tamika Catchings, a former state champion at Stevenson High School in the mid-1990s, was in the house. Now retired after a storied 15-year WNBA career, she is now vice president of basketball operations for the Fever.