Indiana Fever (0-8) vs Las Vegas Aces (1-7)

Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Time: 7:00 p.m. (EDT)
Site: Bankers Life Fieldhouse
TV: none
Live Stream: WNBA League Pass

Probable Starters
Fever: G- Kelsey Mitchell, F- Candice Dupree, C- Natalie Achonwa, G- Erica Wheeler, G- Tiffany Mitchell
Aces: F- Tamera Young, F- A’ja Wilson, C- JiSu Park, G- Kelsey Plum, G- Kayla McBride

The Indiana Fever face the Las Vegas Aces for the first time this season Tuesday night. The Fever are coming off another tight game, falling to New York, 78-75, while Las Vegas is in search of its second win off the season after losing to Phoenix, 72-66, on Sunday.

The Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell had 19 points and four assists in the loss to New York. Tiffany Mitchell followed with 14 points and a game-high seven assists for Indiana. Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson led all Ace scorers in their contest against Phoenix with 17 points and seven rebounds.

Injury Report
Guard Shenise Johnson (left knee ACL rehabilitation) remains out and will not play.

Storylines & Promotion
• Tonight, is STEM Night presented by Honda Manufacturing of Indiana. Come early and be sure to check out the interactive booths on the Main Concourse, including a Lego Robot that solves a Rubik’s cube, brain teasers, a computer with Minecraft, and a host of other robots and activities.

• Indiana fell to 0-8 on the season with its 78-75 loss to the New York Liberty on Sunday. The Fever have lost eight straight games to begin the season for the first time in franchise history.

• Sunday’s game versus the Liberty featured 18 lead changes and neither team led by more than seven. New York tied the game with a 3-pointer at the 2:06 mark, but after the Liberty took a 75-72 lead after a Bria Hartley layup with 38 seconds remaining, Fever rookie Victoria Vivians tied it with her own 3-pointer on the other end with 33 seconds left. Former Fever forward Marissa Coleman capped the game with 16 seconds to go with a dagger 3-pointer for the Liberty. New York finished with 13 3-pointers on the day, the most ever against a Fever team. Vivians finished with 11 points off the bench for Indiana.

• Tuesday’s game features the 0-8 Fever and the 1-7 Aces. It is Indiana’s first meeting against Las Vegas since the team relocated from San Antonio. Indiana was swept by the Stars last season, 3-0.

• When the 11th and 12th-place teams meet in consecutive seasons, it usually means top lottery draft picks go head-to-head. Through eight games, the No. 1 pick, Aces forward A’ja Wilson, and No. 2 pick, Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, from the 2018 WNBA Draft appear poised to race each other for the Rookie of the Year award at season’s end. Currently, they are the top scoring rookies in the WNBA. Wilson ranks sixth in the league with 20.4 points per game and Mitchell ninth at 19.4.

• Wilson, the former South Carolina star, is reunited Tuesday with former college teammate and Fever guard Tiffany Mitchell.

• Rookie Kelsey Mitchell has now scored 20 or more points four times this season, all coming over the last six games. She became the first Fever rookie to record at least 20 points in consecutive games since 2003. She has now totaled 150 points over her last seven games after scoring just five points on 2-of-8 shooting in her WNBA debut against Chicago on May 19.

• Kelsey Mitchell is shooting 41.3 percent from 3-point range on the year, 12th in the WNBA, and her 26 3-point field goals made ranks second in the league behind Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi (29).

• Tuesday night’s game is a battle of the guards as Las Vegas’ Kelsey Plum faces Kelsey Mitchell. Plum finished her college career at Washington as the NCAA’s career scoring leader with 3,527 total points, while Mitchell ranks second with 3,402. However, Mitchell is the NCAA’s career leader in 3-pointers with 442, 99 more than Plum (343).

• Third-year guard Tiffany Mitchell has started every game for the Fever this season and has reached double figures in scoring six times. She finished with 13 points and a career-high seven assists against Washington May 24. Sunday at New York, she scored 14 and recorded another seven assists. Mitchell is also Indiana’s career leader in free throw percentage at 90.9 percent.

• Erica Wheeler passed Ebony Hoffman (265) into seventh place on Indiana’s career assists leaderboard with her lone assist at New York, 6/10. She is 34 assists shy of the No. 6 spot held by Shavonte Zellous (296).

• Forward Candice Dupree has missed consecutive games with a left knee injury.