Sky a perfect 4-0 at home with a gritty 68-63 victory

Home-court advantage is finally starting to mean something to the Chicago Sky.

UIC Pavilion hasn't often provided the friendly rolls and favorable results home teams expect, and through its first three seasons the Sky won only 17 of 51 games at home.

This season, however, it's as if the Sky can't lose here. And it hasn't.

Saturday night in front of 3,918 fans, the Sky showed plenty of grit and mental fortitude in staying in a close game before pulling away for another home victory, 68-63, over the Washington Mystics.

The win boosts the Sky's home record to 4-0, the best start at home in franchise history. Overall, the Sky is now 5-3 and has taken over second place in the Eastern Conference from the Mystics (4-3).

"We want our fans to feel special here," Sky coach Steven Key said. "We want to feel special here and we want our guests to feel unwelcome here. And if we continue to play the basketball that we're playing here, we'll accomplish that."

Sylvia Fowles did her best to keep the home streak alive.

She scored just 5 points through the first three quarters but wound up with 13 points after an 8-point fourth quarter that included several clutch baskets and free throws in the final three minutes.

The Sky and Mystics were tied at 58 with 4:33 left before Fowles helped the Sky close out with a 10-5 run.

"Fourth quarter is crunch time," Fowles said. "You've just got to lock in and be mentally focused and just get things done.

"We don't want to lose here. Some of our fans can't follow us on the road, so when we're at home we want to give them a good show."

Candice Dupree showed some of her best stuff, too. She scored 8 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, including a layup off an alley-oop pass from Jia Perkins, who finished with 14 points.

"That's our secret weapon," laughed Perkins, referring to the alley-oop. "This just feels really good for us, especially to get these wins early in the season. In the past, we've had to make a run at the end. We're taking advantage of our little streak and we want to keep it going."

The Mystics got double figures out of three players, including a team-high 15 points from Lindsey Harding.