By Madie Chandler | FeverBasketball.com

Lexie Hull emerged from the tunnel on Friday with not one, but two black eyes. Odyssey Sims later emerged from the same tunnel boasting a noticeably swollen upper lip.

Toughness is a necessary attribute on a Fever team clawing its way to the playoffs, and Indiana embodies it nightly as it navigates ceaseless adversity in pursuit of greater goals.

“It really epitomizes Lexie’s toughness when you look at her and you see those two black eyes,” coach Stephanie White said. “I mean, she is tough as nails. You know, she plays all out, every possession, all the time. And sometimes the result is two black eyes.”

A head-on collision with Gabby Williams in Indiana’s previous home game caused Hull to develop a sizable knot on her forehead, which transitioned into bruising underneath both of her eyes.

She returned to the hardwood in Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Friday alongside her Fever teammates, prepared to give everything it took to make a tally in the win column against the Chicago Sky. She wore the proof of her dedication on her face – toughness has a cost.

Hull plays 27 minutes a night for the Fever – following just All-Stars Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston – and gives every bit of herself for all 1,620 seconds that she sees the floor. She dives for loose balls, crashes for critical rebounds, and sprints down the floor in transition.

“I’ve said all along, our group is tough and resilient,” White said. “And [Hull] epitomizes that in the way that she plays, how hard she plays, how hard she competes, and in her ability to make something out of nothing sometimes. I think that she does set an example for our team and we’re fortunate that she’s a part of our organization.”

Sims embodied that same resiliency on Friday. Early in the game, she exploded in the direction of a long rebound, racing alongside Chicago’s Michaela Onyenwere. Sims got tripped up in the chase, falling to the ground as her head hit the hardwood. She would exit the game and immediately head to the Fever locker room.

But as the Fever team has done so many times before in a season filled with relentless misfortune, Sims bounced back. She emerged from the locker room to reenter the game wearing the proof of her commitment to Indiana on her face. Her lip was swollen, but her dedication to the Fever overpowered her personal discomfort.

Sims went on to provide 13 points and four assists for Indiana while Hull tallied nine points and three rebounds. They shot a combined 9-for-18 from the floor in a critical Fever victory.

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The WNBA is a physical league – Indiana players have already sustained five season-ending injuries – but the Fever endure. It’s physical, it’s mental, and it’s an emotional toil, but Indiana’s locker room comes together, growing a gritty, no-quit culture that thrives on the pursuit of basketball excellence. It demands personal sacrifice, and the Fever gladly deliver.

Hull and Sims are just the latest examples of that culture in motion.

“The roots that this group has really grown culturally are important,” White said. “You don’t just know how to go through circumstances like this. And I’ve been a part of this league for 25 years, and I’ve never seen all of this stuff happen in one season to one team. And you know, our group has continued to fight, claw and position ourselves so that we’re in the hunt for the playoffs.”

Indiana’s 20-point victory over the Sky on Friday, 97-77, completed a five-game sweep of Chicago this season. It also made the Fever’s magic number to clinch the postseason just one. Indiana controls its own destiny in Baltimore on Sunday as the Fever visit the Washington Mystics.

One win and they’re in.

“It says a lot about this group,” White said postgame on Friday. “You know, they’re tough minded, [they have a] next player up mentality. They’re playing for each other, day in and day out…This experience of going through this, of continuing to take hits, so to speak, and continue to find ways to win, has been important…I think culturally, you see what kind of players and what kind of team we have, because they’ve been able to do that.”