For the Chicago Sky, a Total Eclipse of the Connecticut Sun

Rosemont, IL (July 1, 2010)  As the Chicago Sky reaches the midway point in its fifth WNBA season, there are still more questions than answers. And there are more mysteries than solutions.

For instance, Chicago has beaten four of the league's top five teams at least once. The fifth, Indiana, has beaten them in three nerve-wrackingly close games. No matter what they do, up until now at least, Chicago has not been able to solve the Indiana riddle.

The Connecticut Sun are probably feeling the same way about Chicago. The two teams have played twice already, home and home, and Chicago has dominated both. Chicago is the only team to have beaten Connecticut at home. Their records are nearly mirror images of each other's. Connecticut came into tonight's game at 10-5, the second best record in the league, and Chicago came in at 6-9 in last place in the Eastern Division.

In tonight's game, Chicago came out smoking. Tamera Young (pictured above), new to the starting lineup since the injury to Shameka Criston and not known for three point shooting, hit her first two shots from downtown, finishing 5-7 from the field and with a season high 15 points.

In fact, the same Chicago team that didn't break 40 percent shooting in the previous game against Indiana, shot 68 percent in the first half against the Sun, a new team record for shooting accuracy in a half.  And they shot almost as well, at 60 percent from beyond the arc.

Chicago center Sylvia Fowles was one of the driving forces. “Sylvia was 11-for-14 but she was really driving that,” Head Coach Steven Key said. “After they collapsed, we got a lot of wide open shots and I think she capitalized early.”

These stats were reflected in the final score, with Chicago winning 92-80, in one of the year's most offensively productive efforts.

But it wasn't just offense. Chicago played tenacious, gritty defense. Coach Key said he felt best about the defense, which held Connecticut's offensive powerhouse, Tina Charles, to only one point after three quarters.

Sylvia Fowles said the coach had drilled them hard on defense all week. "He'd been telling us how bad we were," (after Sunday's loss) Fowles said, "and we got mad and decided to prove him wrong." 

Despite being the team leader in nearly every category, coming into tonight's game, Fowles sometimes appeared to have difficulty concentrating in the clutch. At times she has had difficulty pulling down clutch rebounds and making clutch shots. But tonight, she was a woman on a mission, especially in the clutch late in the game, to shut down the Sun's rally.

While Chicago never trailed, and led by as much as 26 in the first half, Connecticut dominated the third quarter. They closed the lead to as few as nine points, outscoring Chicago by 15 in the third. In the final period the two teams were mostly trading baskets, but Chicago made the stops and the scores they needed to seal the victory.

Not that there wasn't any suspense. There were moments later in the game that began to feel like deja vu, when Chicago would miss easy shots in or near the paint. Typically, at such times, especially in recent games, Chicago would let the opposition claw their way back, or even pull ahead. Not tonight. Credit Fowles for that.

Sylvia Fowles was determined not to let those situations cost her team. Whatever went up toward the Chicago basket and missed, Fowles was ripping it down, turning, spinning, and putting it back up off the glass, often at difficult angles. She ended the game with 26 points, shooting 79 percent from the field, and grabbing 11 rebounds.

When asked what she was thinking in the third quarter when Connecticut cut the Chicago lead by more than half, Fowles said, "I expected that. They're an excellent team. You knew they were going to make a run. But we weren't psyched out by it, and we didn't let down. We buried some good shots during that run."

And Fowles took the team on her back in the final minutes.

When asked about her play in the final stretch, Fowles said, "I was just really concentrating." 

The same would apply to the entire Sky team. They played with intensity, passion and a sense of urgency not often seen in this team for an entire game. When asked about that, Coach Key said, "I hope it is something we can do on a regular basis. It shouldn't be that unusual."

As much as Folwes contributed, it was a team effort. On the way to double figures, Dominique Canty recorded her 2,500th point. Sharp shooter Erin Thorn continued her dominance from behind the arc recording her 1,500 point as she tallied 12 points, nine coming from 3-point range.

Five Sky players scored in double digits. Along with Fowles, Thorn, Canty and Young, Mistie Bass, starting her second game of the season, earned her spot finishing with 13 points. In fact, the decision by Coach Key to start Bass is one of the factors shaping the outcome.

“The situation is Mistie gives us great energy, willing to do a lot of the dirty little things with her body,” Key said. “As long as she continues to contribute in that way, we will have to keep that lineup in mind.”

All in all, it is likely most of the 3,061 fans in attendance thought they'd seen their team's best overall performance thus far.

Coming off of a 100-point production in their previous game, the Sun offense hit a wall in the first half scoring only 29 points to compliment their 35 percent shooting percentage. Mainly due to their success in the third quarter, they did have four players in double digits. Despite the offensive spurt in the second half, Head Coach Mike Thibault said the early deficit was too much.

“They were really good early and we were really bad,” Thibault said. “We helped them be good and they were good. It didn't matter what defense we were in. By the time we decided how hard we really had to play to win, we had to big of a hole to dig out of.”

The result improves Chicago's record to 7-9, winning three of their last four, while Connecticut falls to 10-6.

Shameka Criston did not dress for tonight's game. She remains day to day due to post-concussion syndrome. She continues to have headaches after taking an elbow to the left eye two weeks ago. She will be seeing a new specialist tomorrow in hopes of resolving the issue soon. Criston, who came to Chicago from New York in a three-way trade, was an All-Star last season.

During the game it was announced that Chicago's All-Star, Sylvia Fowles, would represent the Sky again this year on Team USA in the All-Star game. The WNBA All-Star game pits the leagues best American players against the rest of the best from around the world.

Chicago's next home game will be against their nemesis Indiana, on July 6th. Game time is 7:30 PM at Allstate Arena.  Before that is a game in Atlanta against the league's leading team.

The Sky is 1-1 against Atlanta thus far, with each team winning on the road.