By Madie Chandler | FeverBasketball.com

Someone’s season was going to end on Thursday evening in Atlanta, but it wasn’t clear until the final seven seconds who would be going home for good.

Lexie Hull stretched into a passing lane with 7.4 seconds remaining in the deciding game of the Fever’s series with the Dream, and tapped the ball loose to clinch Indiana’s spot in the semifinals after an 87-85 win over Atlanta.

“Lexie read it perfectly,” coach Stephanie White said postgame. “…She anticipated, and she got in there and got her hand in it.”

The Indiana Fever left every bit of themselves on the floor on Thursday – it was Kelsey Mitchell’s 19-point first half, Aliyah Boston’s near triple-double, and Odyssey Sims’ eight assists. It was Lexie Hull’s all-out effort channeled to every loose ball, Natasha Howard’s methodical post play, and the palpable energy from the players on the Indiana bench. It took every piece that each name on Indiana’s roster could give.

“I said before the game started, it was going to be a gut check type of game,” Mitchell said. “I think [we] just had to dig deep. I think you have to really give yourself in ways that you least expect. I know I did, from a leadership standpoint.

“…It was big for us, because we could have easily given up when we were playing…There’s a lot of factors that go into it, and we didn’t [give up]. I wouldn’t play with any other group. It’s a special group.”

Mitchell worked to instill belief in her Fever teammates as the group trudged through a particularly challenging season.

“We all we got,” she told them. “We all we need.”

Indiana took that to heart down the final stretch of the regular season, and now the Fever fully embody it after a 2-1 series win to upset the Atlanta Dream. For a team that’s made a habit of surprising the WNBA world with its success amid adversity, Indiana isn’t so surprised itself.

“We say it pretty much ad nauseum,” White began. “But the resilience, the flexibility, the welcome and inclusive nature of this team, their selflessness to pull for the we over the me, the ability to let each teammate be who they are and shine at their best and to lift them up…you couple that with the resilience, the toughness, the grit, the fight, the scrappiness, and you always give yourself a chance.”

That connectedness led to an incredibly balanced box score in Thursday’s Game 3 – every player gave exactly what the team needed from them. Mitchell scored a game-high 24 points; Boston notched a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double with six assists. Sims paired 16 points with her own eight assists along with three steals. Every starter scored in double-figures. Every reserve recorded points.

Natasha Howard believes that comes from White’s confidence in every player on the roster.

“She pours into every single person,” Howard said. “It doesn’t matter how you play, how many minutes you’re going to get, she’s going to tell you to be ready at all times, go out there and do your part. That’s one thing I love about Steph. How she believes in every single person. She trusts us, no matter what.”

White’s trust blends with the confidence the Fever already have in one another, magnifying the belief within the locker room that this group is capable of great things apart from its lengthy list of injured players. What first may be great surprises to some become great expectations for the Indiana Fever as they continue on their path to the ultimate goal – a WNBA championship.