A Loss and the Season's First Win for Chicago Sky in Last Two Outings

Nine Chicago Sky players scored Sunday, May 23, against the Fever in Indianapolis. Only Cathrine Kraayeveld and Sylvia Fowles reached double figures as the Sky lost the final leg of a back-to-back against the Fever 69-61 to fall to 0-4 on the season.

Kraayeveld led the Sky with 11 points. By doing so, she crossed the 1400 career points milestone.

With a basket in the final seconds of the game, Fowles finished with 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds, narrowly missing her second double-double in as many nights.

Shay Murphy and Jene Morris combined for 28 points for the Fever off the bench. Murphy scored 16 and Morris had 12.

After a quick start for Tamika Catchings she cooled off to finish with 13 points.

The Sky shot 39 percent from the field and 35 percent from three-point range.

Dominique Canty, Epiphanny Prince and Shameka Christon scored eight points each for the Sky.

After trailing by as many as nine points in the first half, the Sky ended the half on a 16-1 run to head into halftime at 39-33, but could not sustain the lead through the second half.

By losing, the Sky fell to last place in their division.

On the return home, however, Chicago finally found a way to win. The team's first win of the current regular season came over the Seattle Storm by a score of 84-75. Ironically, Chicago's first victory was Seattle's first loss. Sylvia Fowles led the way with 19 points.

After shooting 50 percent from the field, the Sky went into halftime leading by 13, outscoring the Storm 24-15 in the second quarter.

Epiphanny Prince scored 13 points off the bench to continue her solid play early on in her rookie season. Cathrine Kraayeveld added 14 points, while shooting 4-7 from behind the arc.

After the Storm went on a 21-7 run late in the fourth quarter, Erin Thorn came up big off the bench, converting on all four of her free throws to put the game away in the last minute of regulation. Thorn and Prince weren’t the only Sky bench players to chip in Thursday night. As a whole, the Sky bench scored 34 of the team’s 84 points.

“Our whole focus this week in practice was to push the starters, and that made for some real good practices,” Thorn said. “That really helped us coming into this game being ready to go when we got the call.”

In addition to her seven points, Jia Perkins also surpassed Candice Dupree for the most games played with the Sky at 136.

Lauren Jackson, averaging 20 PPG coming into the contest, led the way for Seattle with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Svetlana Abrosimova chipped in with 13 points off the bench.

The Storm, who pride themselves on defense, were not up to the task Thursday night.

“We didn’t get any stops,” Jackson said. “We didn’t help each other defensively. We didn’t play how we normally play defensively and we are known as a defensive team and tonight we just didn’t show it at all.”

Dominique Canty had a milestone night scoring her 2,400th point of her career while also recording her 300th assist. Canty is only the 21st player in WNBA history to reach this total.

Photo: Chicago's Cathrine Kraayeveld surpassed the 1400 career points mark in their loss at Indianapolis.