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WNBA Indiana Fever

Boston Wills Fever to Win over Dream in Career Night

September 8, 2024 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Indiana Fever News Release


The Indiana Fever are on a scorching tear after the WNBA's Olympic break, winning eight of their last 10 games, but they slipped first on Friday as they fell to Minnesota and again as they were challenged by Atlanta on Sunday afternoon. After a first half against the Dream that had the ambiance of a nightmare, the Fever entered their locker room in a four-point hole, and with 13 turnovers to Atlanta's one. They would play themselves back from a 16-point deficit in the middle of the third quarter, ultimately winning 104-100 in overtime.

With specialists surrounding them, the Fever trio of stars can shine. Just how brightly they do is up to them.

In each of the last two outings, all three of Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark, and Kelsey Mitchell have eclipsed the 20-point mark. In each of the same two games, Clark and Boston have each recorded double-doubles. Clark did so with points and assists; Boston with points and rebounds.

But Sunday was Boston's night as she set a new career high of 30 points, scraping and clawing to that total from the paint underneath the rim, and collected 13 rebounds while she was there.

"Right now we're kind of in the space where we just have to make sure that we're keeping our foot on the gas," Boston said. "I think we know that we're very capable of beating any single team, just because of the way we play, the pace that we play at, and just the weapons that we have all around the floor...And so I think that we're in a good spot. Just continuing to know that even if we're down, no matter what the time of the game is, we're very capable of coming back."

Boston's grind-it-out mindset led Indiana to a gutsy victory, but not without contributions from the Fever's supporting cast.

Lexie Hull, the newest installation in Indiana's starting lineup having started in each of the last four games, is having a career year. She set a new career high of 22 points in the Fever's win over Seattle on August 18th, and averages 9.8 points, 1.5 assists, and 4.2 rebounds over the last 10 games.

Hull's rise came rapidly, paralleling the Fever's post-Olympics hot streak. Now with a legitimate chance to threaten other sharpshooters for the league's 3-point percentage crown, She's a mainstay in Indiana's rotation. After sinking just 21.7 percent of her two 3-point attempts per game last season, Hull is making 46.7 percent of those attempts from long range for the 2024 Fever - a 25 percent increase in efficiency without any drop-off in attempts.

She made four of her five 3-point attempts in the win against the Atlanta Dream on Sunday, but her best contributions came from what Mitchell likes to call "the trenches." So when a Sunday afternoon game came down to the margins, Hull was crucial in making a difference.

"I think she does a lot of things for us that don't show up in the box score," Clark said of Hull. "She's all over the floor. I mean, she guards their best player all night. So I'm just really proud of her. She's our X factor."

Down the stretch of regulation time, Hull hit a timely 3-pointer that brought the Fever within four, and secured a defensive rebound on the other end immediately after hitting that crucial shot. Not long afterwards, she made a deflection to disrupt an Atlanta inbound play with less than a minute of time in the contest.

Hull finished the game with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, and two assists.

"We're not satisfied," coach Christie Sides said. "There's nothing that we've done yet...That was our goal, was to make it to the playoffs. But now, what they've shown they can do, we're not ready to just make that where it lands...We're going to play one of the top teams in the league again, and they have the experience. We've got to build that now."

Indiana will keep building on Wednesday when they welcome the Las Vegas Aces to Indianapolis for the second half of the six-game homestand to end the season.

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