WNBA Phoenix Mercury

Fever Sweats Out 83-73 Win Over Mercury

by Andrew Nordmeier
Published on June 24, 2006 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Phoenix Mercury


The Phoenix Mercury showed resiliency, toughness and heart in its 83-73 loss to the Indiana Fever (9-4) Friday night at the US Airways Center.

The Mercury (4-7) could have folded it up for the night when they were down 10-0 two minutes in, but they didn't. They could have mailed it in when they were down 16 at the half, but they didn't. Instead they charged back and came within a possession of tying the game up. That was when they fell just short.

"This team's never going to give up," Diana Taurasi said, "We have some fighters on this team and we always give ourselves a chance and then we got back in the hole."

Phoenix was driving up court, trailing 75-72 with less than a minute left when Crystal Smith attempted a pass to teammate Kelly Miller. The pass never got there as Fever guard Tully Bevailaqua stole the ball and broke towards the basket. Bevailaqua made a driving lay up and was fouled by Mercury forward Cappie Pondexter with 42.2 seconds left in regulation. The foul was ruled to be flagrant as Bevailaqua went down to the floor hard and hit her head off the base of the basket support.

The call enraged the Mercury fans as they started chanting, "These refs suck." Phoenix Head Coach Paul Westhead may have been echoing that sentiment as he was hit with his second technical foul of the game and was ejected. Bevailaqua hit the free throws for the technical and flagrant fouls and put Indiana ahead 79-72.

Tamika Whitmore paced all scorers with 26 points and nine rebounds for the Fever on 10-of-17 shooting. Tamika Catchings scored 20 points in the winning effort.

Turnovers also played role in this game as Phoenix committed 17 of them, which led to 19 Indiana points.

"That has not been our problem this season," Westhead said, "We're not a turnover prone team. I'm not too concerned about this team turning the ball over."

The Mercury will have very little time to recover from this loss as they host the expansion Chicago Sky Sunday afternoon.

"We've got to come out and get wins," Taurasi said, "I felt we could have won this game but it didn't go our way."

Notes: Phoenix was held to a season-low 73 points, 12 below its season average as the highest scoring team in the league...Indiana is 7-3 all-time against Phoenix...Anna DeForge made her return to Phoenix after being traded for Kelly Miller in the offseason. DeForge scored six points and pulled down eight assists in her first game against her former team...Kelly Miller, acquired from the Fever in the DeForge deal, made her home debut and scored three points...Attendance was 5,968.

Check out the Phoenix Mercury Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Women's National Basketball Association Stories from June 24, 2006


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central