CHICAGO — Cappie Pondexter scored 20 of her season-high 22 points in the second half and teamed with fellow 13-year veteran Candice Dupree, adding 22 of her own, to lead the Indiana Fever to 97-92 win over the Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena.

Pondexter, fourth on the WNBA’s career scoring list, and Dupree, eighth, lifted the young Fever roster to just their sixth win of the season, on the final day of the season. After Linnae Harper scored back-to-back 3-pointers to bring the Sky within 87-83 with four minutes remaining, Pondexter and Dupree combined for all of Indiana’s scoring as part of a 10-4 spurt to regain a double-digit lead.

The Fever closed a difficult season by snapping a five-game losing skid and halting the Sky’s two-game win streak. Ending the season on a high note, Indiana, 6-28, avenged a 115-106 double-overtime defeat to Chicago, 13-21, just 24 hours earlier in Indianapolis.

“That 34-year old veteran sure didn’t look 34 out there today,” said Fever coach Pokey Chatman while referring to Dupree who also dished a season-high six assists.

Chatman continued praise of her three top veterans, “Natalie [Achonwa], who was actually sick most of the day, came through for us one more time like she has all season. And Cappie, she was vintage Cappie. She knows how to score the basketball and she took things into her own hands in the second half.”

Kelsey Mitchell and Tiffany Mitchell each tallied 14 for Indiana, and Achonwa added 11 points with a game-high nine rebounds. Diamond DeShields led the Sky with 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Cheyenne Parker had 12 points and Stefanie Dolson added 11.

Pondexter sparked a third-quarter surge that helped Indiana overcome an early 12-point deficit and take its first lead of the contest. She scored 13 points in the period and Kelsey Mitchell had four of her career-high six assists as the Fever outscored the Sky 31-17 in the third. Tiffany Mitchell’s fast-break bucket, on a feed from Kelsey Mitchell, capped a 12-2 run to give Indiana its first lead at 70-69. Dolson answered on the other end, but another bucket from Tiffany Mitchell put the Fever on top, 72-71, with a lead it never relinquished.

Pondexter hit 3-pointers to push the Fever lead to 4, 75-71, and later 8, 83-75 in the fourth, as the Fever dominated a 29-10 second-half sequence to take command. The Fever turned the double-digit deficit into a double-digit lead on Candice Dupree’s jumper for an 87-77 margin with just over six minutes to play. But for a brief moment accented by Harper’s 3-pointers, the Sky never challenged again.

Chicago had maintained a 54-47 halftime advantage on the strength of 7-of-9 shooting and a pair of 3-pointers from DeShields.

Kelsey Mitchell, whose lone 3-pointer came during her 14-point first half, became the league’s first rookie to make 70 3-pointers since former Indiana star Tamika Catchings made 76 to tie the league rookie record in 2002.

Finishing the season with a win, Chatman commented, “We wanted to wake up as winners tomorrow. I told my team I want them to take some of our tears and some of our hard lessons from this season — take them home and abroad, keep learning, keep striving and come back next season just like we came back in these last couple weeks.”

After playing to a 2-21 record prior to the All-Star break, Indiana finished 4-7 after the break. Indiana awaits the upcoming WNBA draft lottery in which it holds the best odds of securing the top pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft.

Highlights