Indiana Fever (4-4) vs. Chicago Sky (4-4)

Date: Friday, June 10, 2016
Time: 7:00 p.m. (EDT)
Site: Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, IN)
Television: MyIndy-TV 23
Webcast: Live webcast and stats can be accessed via WNBA League Pass on FeverBasketball.com

Probable Starters
Fever– F- Marissa Coleman, F-Tamika Catchings, C-Erlana Larkins, G- Shenise Johnson, G-Briann January
Sky– F- Elena Delle Donne, F- Jessica Breland, C- Erika de Souza, G- Cappie Pondexter, G- Jamierra Faulkner

Storylines & Promotion

• The Indiana Fever return home for a weekend home stand tipping off Friday night at 7:00 p.m. against a familiar Eastern Conference rival, the Chicago Sky.

• The Fever and Sky will square off for the first time since their Eastern Conference Semifinals series during the 2015 WNBA Playoffs. After dropping Game 1 of the series, the Fever rallied to win the final two games, including a historic 100-89 road victory at Chicago in Game 3 in which the two teams combined to shoot 57.5 percent from the field – a new WNBA record for combined shooting percentage in a playoff game.

• Indiana and Chicago are currently tied with the New York Liberty for second place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 4-4 record.

• Chicago is led once again by All-Star forward, Elena Delle Donne. She is averaging 18.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in seven starts this season. After dropping four straight games, the Sky have won their last three outings, including a 98-72 runaway home win over the Washington Mystics in their last game on Friday, June 3.

• In their last outing, the Fever outlasted the Connecticut Sun behind a career high 21-point effort from rookie guard Tiffany Mitchell for their first road victory of the season Sunday afternoon.

• Mitchell has scored in double figures in all eight games to begin her professional career for the Fever and is averaging a team-best 15.1 points per game. She has matched a league record with the most double-figure scoring games to begin a career, eight, by any player drafted 9th or lower in the WNBA draft.

• After missing the first five games this season while recovering from offseason microfracture surgery on her right knee, Briann January has appeared in the last three games and made her first start of the season in Sunday’s win at Connecticut. She finished with eight points and five assists in 24 minutes against the Sun, and has led the Fever in assists in all three of her appearances.

• Devereaux Peters finished with 12 points off the bench in Sunday’s win after four straight games with fewer than 10 points. She is currently sixth in the WNBA among all qualified players in field goal percentage while shooting 55.6 percent from the field.

• Erlana Larkins scored six points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds in the victory at Connecticut. She recorded 10 or more rebounds for the first time since recording back-to-back double-doubles to open the season. Larkins currently leads the Fever and ranks seventh overall in the WNBA with an average of 7.4 rebounds per game.

Series
Chicago swept all four regular season matchups over Indiana last season, three of which came by margins of 23 or more points and by a total average of 19.8 points per game. Entering last season, Chicago had never defeated Indiana more than twice in one season. After dropping Game 1 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Semifinals series at Chicago, the Fever rallied to defeat the Sky in each of the next two games to avoid elimination and eventually advance to the WNBA Finals. Indiana leads the overall series, 30-12, including a 17-4 record at home.