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WNBA Phoenix Mercury

Fever Outlast Mercury 62-56

by Andrew Nordmeier
August 16, 2005 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Phoenix Mercury


The Indiana Fever picked up its franchise-best 17th victory of the season by downing the Phoenix Mercury 62-56 at America West Arena in a hard-fought game.

The game had 46 fouls and 27 of them were committed by Phoenix. All those fouls led to three members of the Mercury-Kamila Vodichkova, Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor- being asked to leave the game with their six fouls. Despite the loss, the Mercury still holds the fourth spot one-half game ahead of Los Angeles.

As the Mercury (13-14) started to foul out, Indiana (17-12) became even hotter.

Vodichkova fouled out with 4:37 left in regulation and Phoenix clinging to a 50-49 edge. Natalie Williams scored two of her game-high 15 to put Indiana back up by a point with 3:30 left.

"They allowed me to go around them tonight, which was nice considering they're so tall," the 6-foot-2 Williams said about winning the inside battle against the 6-foot-4 Vodichkova and 6-foot-8 Maria Stepanova.

Just 70 seconds later, Taurasi was whistled for a questionable offensive foul and was done for the night.

"Having Diana Taurasi foul (out) and taking the head off the body, so to speak, down the stretch, that always helps," Fever Head Coach Brian Winters said, "We took some nice charges on her (to draw fouls)."

Leading by one, Indiana's Kelly Miller took over. She hit a critical three-point bomb with 35.3 seconds left that gave the Fever a 56-52 edge. Anna DeForge answered back for Phoenix with a basket of her own to make it a two-point game with 18 seconds left.

With both teams in the penalty, this became a war of foul shots and Indiana won the game on the charity stripe. Miller converted four free throws in the final 16.1 seconds to give her team a lead it would not relinquish. Taylor fouled out with 3.1 seconds left.

"Their good free throw shooters went to the line," Graf said, "Miller made some clutch ones."

The Fever finished 21-of-22 from the foul line while Phoenix was uncharacteristically weak at 8-of-15.

"You can't win ball games shooting 53% from the free-throw line," Graf said of the uncharacteristic performance, "If we get that to 65% we probably win that game."

Indiana opened the game with a 7-0 run and led 30-29 at the half. The Fever started the second half 4-of-20 from the floor and Phoenix couldn't capitalize. The Mercury was hindered by 20 turnovers.

Deanna Jackson added 13 off the bench for Indiana and Tamika Catchings added 12 to guide the Fever to a franchise-best sixth road win of the year.

"It was the second night of a back-to-back we beat a quality team. It's a big win for us," Winters said.

DeForge led Phoenix with 18 points and Stepanova added 13 in the losing effort. Taylor, Vodichkova and Taurasi each scored eight before fouling out.

The Mercury will have to get over this loss quickly as the Detroit Shock visits America West Arena Tuesday night. The last time these two teams met, the Shock rallied from 17 points down in the second half to post a 66-63 win July 31st.

"We let one slide over there," DeForge said, "and we'll be thinking about that during the game."

Notes: Phoenix failed to reach the 60-point mark for the first time since June 22nd at Minnesota...Indiana won the season series for the second time in the last three years and has won six of the last seven meetings between the teams...Indiana had 24 more offensive possessions than Phoenix (96-72)...Stepanova added a season-high five blocked shots in the loss...Indiana's bench outscored Phoenix's 24-1...Attendance was 6,279.

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