KEY STAT:
— After trailing by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, the Indiana
Fever came back to force overtime before falling 81-87 after the extra
period. The 20-point come-from-behind effort would have set a new
franchise record for the largest comeback in Fever franchise history.
— New York shot just 39 percent from the field, but finished the game
shooting 30-for-32 from the free throw line compared to 12-for-18 by
Indiana.
KEY RUN:
— The Fever outscored the Liberty 42-25 in the third and fourth quarters
while holding New York to 28.6 percent shooting.
INDIANA NOTES:
— The Fever fell to 0-6 on the season, which is now the longest losing
streak to begin a season in team history. However, the combined record
for Indiana’s first six opponents is now 16-8.
— Rookie guard Kelsey Mitchell continued her strong play to begin the
season as she scored a season-high 26 points on 9-for-17 shooting and
5-for-9 from three-point range. She has scored 20+ points in three of
the first six games of her WNBA career.
— Kelsey Mitchell reached 100 points on the season in tonight’s game. Only
five players in WNBA history have reached the 100-point mark in fewer
games (Ruthie Bolton, 1997; Nikki McCray, 1998; Tamika Catchings, 2002;
Seimone Augustus, 2006; Cappie Pondexter, 2006).
— Candice Dupree finished with 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
She added 12 points and five rebounds in the second half and overtime.
Her basket tied the game at 69-69 with 1:15 left in regulation.
— Erica Wheeler finished with 14 points and a team-high seven assists. She
moved into eighth place in Fever franchise history in career assists
ahead of Rita Williams (255) in tonight’s game.
— Tiffany Mitchell finished with 10 points on 5-for-9 shooting. She has
reached double figures in four of the team’s six games.
— The Fever forced a season-high 21 turnovers that resulted in 22 points.
NEW YORK NOTES:
— The Liberty evened their record at 2-2 on the season, and earned their
first road win of the season.
— Rookie guard Kia Nurse posted her best outing of her young career with
34 points, nine rebounds and four assists in 40 minutes off the bench.
Nurse attempted half of New York’s free throws on the night and finished
15-for-16 from the stripe.
— Tina Charles posted her third consecutive double-double with 23 points
and 10 rebounds. She sank two free throws with 8.3 seconds remaining in
the fourth quarter to force overtime.
— Former Fever guard Shavonte Zellous finished with 17 points for New
York.
Quoting Fever Head Coach Pokey Chatman
“We have to maintain a higher level of play at both ends of the floor for longer
than 32 minutes. We continue having lapses in play that seem to bury us.”
“[The Liberty] were aggressive and knocked us off some of our cuts on offense.
And I thought we settled sometimes with some of our shots. They were physical
with us and we let it affect us.”
“There are no little things. I know that even I have used that term. Those
things that people on the outside call ‘little things,’ they’re big things.
Getting rebounds, getting to loose balls, not settling for jumpers instead of
getting to the rim. Those are all big things that we have to begin doing more
consistently.”
Quoting the Fever’s Candice Dupree
(On the Liberty’s offensive run in the first to second quarters) “They got more
physical with us. They were taking away passing lanes, getting us out of our
offense. They just became more aggressive. I think once again our defense is
predicated off our offense and it can’t be. Settling for jumpers, people were
missing shots and we just stopped playing defense. Can’t let that happen.”
(On the positives in the second half) “We’ve shown that we can play defense, we
just need to do it for 40 minutes now. We got down in the stance and took away
whatever it was that they were trying to do. We were able to get rebounds and
push it down the other end. But we can’t put ourselves in a 20 point hole.”
Quoting the Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell (On the being buried in the first half) “Not
following through with knowing what’s going on, on the court. Lack of focus.
Just not finishing defensively.”
(On how they came out mentally in the second half) “Get tired of losing.
Everybody in here talking about how young we are and everything else. But just
tired of losing. So I think that was the difference in the first and second
half.”
Quoting Liberty Head Coach Katie Smith
“Tough game. They’re hard to play because they never stop and they can score in
bunches. The guards are a really, really hard match up. And then Dupree
(Candice) is just real smooth and solid. Happy about our fight. Made plays when
we needed to and snuck up out here with a win.”
(On going into the overtime, what did you tell your team?) “We’ve got to get
stops. Yeah we’ll get buckets. We’ll get it on the other end. We had to find a
way to get them up on the rim, go get them rebounds, because they outworked us a
little bit in regular time. Tina (Charles) finally got some shots to go down for
her. Kia Nurse had a heck of a ball game, but again the defensive side of
getting those stops, getting down there and getting a score.”
Quoting the Liberty’s Kia Nurse
“I thought it was a good battle as a team. We fought through some adversity
there. I think we came back, played together and got some stops. (We) had some
key contributions from a lot of different people and some key plays down the
stretch.”
(On the difference between the first and second half) “Obviously I think in the
first quarter we fixed some things coming out towards the second. In the second
half, obviously, they made some shots and made their run. It was a matter of
trying to execute the offense and get some defensive stops.”
Quoting the Liberty’s Tina Charles
“We had that game. I want to say we were up (20). They came back. They’re
searching for a win. They’re gonna work hard. That’s all they know. They’re
young players, but kudos to Kia Nurse. Being a rookie and having 34, she really
held us down this game.”
(On first and second half) “The second half, I wanna say they punched us first.
I think when we came out in the first quarter we were kind of slow and (Shavonte
Zellous) had to tell us we had to pick it up. In the second quarter, we came out
and played really hard. The third quarter, they came out and they punched us
first. They had a lot of energy, they had the momentum, they had the crowd
behind them. We just came out and we were resilient, we didn’t give up. The two
plus free throws at the end, that help us out a lot.”
