WNBA Chicago Sky

Sky Lose Big Lead in Overtime

July 29, 2015 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Chicago Sky News Release


ROSEMONT- Following the WNBA All-Star weekend the Chicago Sky and Phoenix Mercury returned to action on Tuesday night at the US Airways Center for a rematch of the 2014 WNBA Finals. Despite a 32-point effort from Elena Delle Donne and a 19-point Sky lead in the first half, the Mercury battled back to defeat the Sky 89-87 in overtime.

All-Stars Cappie Pondexter and Elena Delle Donne rejoined the Sky picking up right where they left off as they helped the Sky jump out to an early 9-4 lead over the Mercury. Phoenix could not stop the WNBA's leading scorer as Elena Delle Donne got on the scoreboard early and often. She contributed nine points to lead all scorers in the first as the Sky maintained a 22-19 lead heading into the second.

Midway through the second quarter, Phoenix sent extra defenders at Elena Delle Donne and the Sky used efficient ball movement to quickly build a 19-point lead (42-23). At the half, the Sky had a 44-31 buffer, led by 16 points from Delle Donne.

The Sky went scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half allowing Phoenix the opportunity to sneak back into the game. DeWanna Bonner poured in 16 points in the quarter to help the Mercury cut the deficit to just one. Breland hit a shot as time expired in the third to give the Sky a 58-55 lead.

The Mercury used a 12-2 run to start the fourth quarter and built a seven-point advantage (67-60). Down the stretch the Sky turned to Delle Donne for clutch scoring as she contributed 12 of the Sky's 20 fourth-quarter points to cut the deficit. The Sky had the ball with 4.6 seconds remaining and trailing by a point, they fed the ball to Elena Delle Donne who completed a three-point play to put the Sky back on top 78-76. Bonner drew a foul with one second remaining and connected on a pair of free throws to force overtime (78-78).

The overtime period featured back-and-forth action until Bonner hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 1:21 remaining and the Mercury escaped with an 89-87 victory. Bonner led all scorers in the game with 34 points and Delle Donne finished with 32 to lead Chicago.

The Sky returns to action on Friday, July 31st, as they take on the Los Angeles Sparks at Allstate Arena to begin a five-game homestand. Tip off is set for 7:30pm CT.

Postgame Notes:

Chicago Sky 87, Phoenix Mercury 89

Notes

Chicago forward Elena Delle Donne leads the league in scoring average with 24.9 points per game and is second in free throw percentage, shooting 95.6-percent (130-of-136). Delle Donne shot a perfect 11-of-11 from the line tonight.Sky Forward Elena Delle Donne finished tonight's game with 32 points, her fourth game with 30 or more points this season. Delle Donne scored zero points in the third quarter and came back to score 12 in the fourth.Chicago shot 33-of-86 (38.4-percent) in tonight's loss, the 86 shot attempts is their most attempts this season (previous 83 on July 15 vs Washington).Chicago's bench outscored Phoenix's bench 24-12.

With 4:59 left in the fourth quarter, Erika de Souza scored her first points with the Sky. She finished with four points and four rebounds in 14 minutes of action.

Chicago went on a 15-0 run in under five minutes in the second quarter. Cappie Pondexter's eight points during the stretch extended Chicago's lead to 42-23.

Tonight was the second time Chicago pushed Phoenix into overtime. The last time was on August 31, 2008, which resulted in a 112-105 loss for the Sky. The Sky hosts the Mercury on August 9 at 1pm.

Allie Quigley contributed 14 points off the bench. She has now scored in double figures in five consecutive contests coming off the bench. Phoenix tied their greatest comeback in team history as the Mercury trailed by 19 points on June 22, 1999 at Washington and came back to win 79-76. Chicago led by 19 points, 42-23, at the 2:45 mark of the second quarter. Phoenix sparked their comeback with a 22-8 run in the third quarter to take the lead by one at the 1:57 mark of the quarter.Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner scored 16 points in the third quarter, going 6-7 from the field and 5-5 from the free throw line, the most points from a Mercury player in a quarter this season. Bonner finished with 34 points which are a new team season-high for her (previous 23 on June 21 at Seattle) also her first 30 or more point game of the season and her fourth 30 or more point game of her career.Phoenix forward DeWanna Bonner finished tonight's game perfect from the line with 11-of-11 free throws, a new team season-high in free throws made (previous 10 on July 14 vs Atlanta) also extending her consecutive streak to 30 (19 prior to tonight) free throws dating back to July 10th. The 30 consecutive free throws made currently rank as the second-longest active streak in the league (Augustus, Minnesota, 35 straight, August 9, 2014 - present). Bonner's prior longest career streak was 24 consecutive free throws made which she has done twice in her career (June 21 - July 8, 2011 and June 16 - June 29, 2013).Mercury center Brittney Griner entered tonight's game the leading shot blocker in the WNBA and finished with five blocks. Griner has 17 career games with five or more blocked shots.

QUOTES

Chicago Sky Head Coach and General Manager Pokey Chatman

(Her first impressions after the close loss...)

"I thought we created some momentum for ourselves and then coming out of the half, we struggled for about five and a half minutes to put points on the board. I thought we did a decent job on getting that back because in the last four minutes of that quarter, we actually scored 14 points to kind of even things up. But with a team like Phoenix, we let them get momentum in areas that they didn't previously like in some transition baskets, points in the paint, their key players, I can Candice (Dupree) hitting a couple in a row, Bonner with her threes. You can't do that any team let alone the defending champs at home. We are just hungry for a win."

(On what the Mercury did differently to spur their comeback in the second half...)

"I never like to not give the other team credit, but when I went back just now and watched the shots we got in the third quarter, I'll take those shots. A couple of wide open shots from the Elena (Delle Done) that she had in the first and second quarter, Cappie (Pondexter) had a couple of good looks off of the switch, (Courtney Vandersloot) Sloot...I don't think they did a lot differently because they trust and believe in their system of play. I just thought we didn't knock some key shots down and there were a few there that were Griner, like three of them that she altered the shot. We felt good about how we were moving the basketball, that's why we had 44 points in the first half. We did the same things to get the same looks, those shots didn't fall."

(On the potential of this game being a WNBA Finals preview...)

"This is a credit to Phoenix, the organization, their fans...it can be a preseason game and that will be the atmosphere. I say that as a compliment. For us and all of the other WNBA teams, this is 18th game so nobody can think Finals. We're all so bunched up but it's nice that you guys talk about that and it's respectful to both franchises."

Chicago Sky Guard/Forward Elena Delle Donne

(On the importance of a team moving on after a tough loss...)

"It's huge, obviously a really tough loss, I felt like that third quarter we just went really cold for a while. We were able to kind of get the momentum back, but at home of a great team like that and with great players stepping up and going off you can't let them back in."

(On the Sky's resiliency to mount their own comeback after Phoenix made a run...)

"This team has great character and it's a gritty team to be able to come back like that. With this incredible crowd, it's really good to know it's something we can build on. Obviously we're upset we didn't get the win, but it's something to build on."

(On the back and forth battle between herself and DeWanna Bonner...)

"It was just an offensive kind of night for the both of us. She was absolutely on fire. It felt like anything she was putting up, it was going in and I was just trying to attack on the other end."

Chicago Sky Guard Allie Quigley

(On whether the Mercury's defense changed in the second half...)

"Not really, no. I think we just weren't playing the same. We were getting stops in the first half and our transition was good, we were moving the ball and then we just got away from that and settle for jump shots."

Phoenix Mercury Head Coach Sandy Brondello

(On the big win tonight...)

"It was a hard fought game. Was it our best game? No. Our first twenty minutes were very average. We just didn't execute, we didn't have any toughness but in the second half, it shows the character of this team. I thought our defense went on another level. (Elena) Delle Donne still scored 32-she's an amazing offensive player but we really dug deep and made it hard for them and we competed. On the other end we kept it a real simple game-we just wanted to run and attack. It took a little overtime but we got there and the result is what we wanted."

(On what was said at halftime...)

"I just didn't think we were playing hard enough really. It's not that we weren't having the effort; we didn't have the execution and that really hurt us in the schemes that we did. Let's just be aggressive, DB (DeWanna Bonner) staying up and in, and just taking pride in your one-on-one defense. I thought Monique Currie had her best defensive effort tonight. We started blocking out-it's just been Achilles heels-we preach it and talk about it but tonight was one of the first nights I actually saw everyone physically blocking out so we can go get the boards and get out and run."

Phoenix Mercury Forward DeWanna Bonner

(On DeWanna's thoughts during the final moments of overtime...)

"I just wanted to win. We came out pretty sluggish (tonight)-we got down by a lot and we weren't playing our game. I just wanted to be aggressive (at the end)-tried to get things going. That's what they preach to me so that was what I was trying to do."

(On what it was like defending Elena Delle Donne...)

"She's good. She has a great shot so it's kind of hard to block it and when you try you kind of hit her on the arm a couple of times. She's a great player and fortunately everybody played defense on her and did a great job."

Phoenix Mercury Center Brittney Griner

(On difficulty getting rebounds on the first half...)

"Definitely coach brought that to our attention-just our rebounding and how much they were out rebounding us. We needed to go in and take away those second chance points they were getting."

(On getting a win after two losses...)

"We went into All Star break with two losses. So we definitely wanted to get a win and we're going on a two game road trip for five days away so we definitely want to win on the road-that'll be big for the playoffs."

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Women's National Basketball Association Stories from July 29, 2015


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