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 Indiana Fever

Lynx Outlast Fever, 87-65

July 11, 2018 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Indiana Fever News Release


KEY STAT:

Minnesota held a 36-24 advantage in points in the paint. In the third quarter with the Lynx up 58-39 it was 30-12.

Minnesota assisted on 29 of their 33 field goals.

KEY RUN:

With an 11-0 run Indiana cut the Minnesota lead to four at 31-27 at the 4:16 mark of the second quarter, but the Lynx responded with a 10-0 run to go up 41-27 at the 2:08 mark of the second period.

INDIANA NOTES:

Erica Wheeler led Indiana with 12 points as she recorded her seventh game this season in double-figures.

Wheeler dished out five assists and with 313 is now six assists from moving into fifth on the Fever career assist list.

Rookie guard Kelsey Mitchell connected on three 3-point field goals to move into 15th on the all-time single season WNBA rookie 3-point list. She now has 49 for the season.

Mitchell recorded her 11th game of the season with at least three 3-point field goals and finished with 11 points.

Trailing 31-16 with 7:30 to play in the second quarter, the Fever went on an 11-0 run to get within four at 31-27 at the 4:16 mark of the second period.

Natalie Achonwa scored in double-figures for the 10th time this season with 10 points. Achonwa has scored in double-figures in three of her last four games. Achonwa tied her career-high in assists with three.

The Fever rookie class has now combined for 93, 3-point field goals. With seven more they would become the third rookie class by any WNBA team to reach the century mark.

MINNESOTA NOTES:

After scoring eight points in the loss to the Fever on July 3, Sylvia Fowles led the Lynx with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. It was the eighth time this season Fowles has scored 20 or more points.

Fowles had a game-high 10 rebounds to notch her league-leading 13th double-double and also led Minnesota in assists as she tied a career-high with seven assists.

Maya Moore scored 19 points and added nine rebounds and four assists.

Minnesota held a 36-24 advantage in points in the paint and outrebounded the Fever 38-26.

The Lynx connected on 33-of-64 (51.6 percent) from the field.

Minnesota tallied a season-high 29 assists on 33 field goals.

QUOTING FEVER COACH POKEY CHATMAN:

"We knew that Minnesota was going to come in here with a sense of urgency - not just because we beat them last week, but because of their last game, too. We knew we needed to apply defensive pressure. We needed to match their sense of urgency early. But we didn't do that. It's tough to do that and give up a big margin to anybody in this league. It's tougher still when you do that against a veteran, experienced team. We allowed [the Lynx] to get comfortable and we let them dictate to us."

(on doing things any differently from when Indiana beat Minnesota last week)

"[Minnesota] did 90 percent of the same things as last week. We didn't. When you don't do the right things against a hungry, veteran team, they're going to punish you. That's what happened."

QUOTING FEVER GUARD ERICA WHEELER:

(What did the Lynx do differently today?)

"They started out aggressive. We knew they were going to come out punching, but we didn't punch back. And it started with Maya (Moore) diving on the floor. We just didn't come out aggressive and they came out aggressive and they didn't in the first game."

(On playing them even)

"That's when we were doing the schemes on defense. Sylvia (Fowles) touched the ball, Maya took some off balanced shots and we were getting in transition and getting some open looks. Everything is all about defense. Once we get our defense down, we're pretty good."

QUOTING THE FEVER'S KELSEY MITCHELL

(What happened to the Fever's defense?)

"Schemes. We were out of sync on our schemes in regards to who is going on the double down on, Sylvia Fowles, and the rotations we missed. Just a variety of things."

(Were the Lynx more aggressive?)

"They definitely came out and punched us first and they set the tone."

(On Maya Moore)

"She came ready to play as their whole team did."

QUOTING LYNX HEAD COACH CHERYL REEVE

(What was the focus for today, after a couple of recent losses?)

"One of the losses was to this team, obviously, at our place. I think the Lynx focus was about trying to be as good of a team as we know ourselves to be. We had a good couple days after our road trip in Chicago, where we got together a good couple days of work and really focused on some of the details that we were missing. It was time well spent. Just thought that we were pretty focused and hard to play against. Shared the ball, 29 assists. Someone like Endy Miyem who is a good shooter was 1-9, so a lot of her shots would have been assisted as well. If she just makes a couple of those, we would have had a 30 assists game. Really impressive. But 29 on 33 (FG) was kind of the story of the game for us. I think sharing the ball. Sylvia Fowles was aggressive early in the game and it really caused them to collapse aggressively and they just dared our other players to make shots and we did."

QUOTING THE LYNX SYLVIA FOWLES

"The focus today was just playing Lynx basketball. Be poised. Making sure we come out and play good team defense. Of course our offense has been a struggle lately. Just make sure we stay together for the whole 40 minutes. I think we did just that."

(On dominating in the paint)

"I don't think it was on purpose. We pretty much took what Indiana gave us. We knew we were going to have to make our own breaks. They crowded the paint on me a lot and I got some open looks to our guards on the perimeter. When they knocked down shots they made sure they got me back inside. So it was give take."

QUOTING THE LYYX MAYA MOORE

"We had a few things we wanted to tighten up offensively to help our offense run smoother and to continue on the path to being hard to play against. And we wanted to make sure we were locked in and together communicating on both sides, offense and defense."

(On Sylvia Fowles)

"It's always intentional to get Syl involved. She did a great job playing with so much poise, perfect combination of poise and aggression. She was amazing tonight with 20 (pts), 10 (rebs) and 7 (assists). Just being able to find her teammates and I'm glad we were able to knock some shots down for her when she kicked it out."


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