June 26, 2015 – Fever players Briann January, Shenise Johnson, and Tamika Catchings discuss Indiana’s 83-77 loss to the Chicago Sky.

Second-Half Breakdowns Cost Indiana in Loss to Chicago

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Fever departed Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Friday night harboring feelings of regret.

Squandering an opportune situation will do that to a team.

The Fever opened impressively against Chicago before they unraveled amid late turnovers and defensive lapses. They let a potential victory against the Sky slip away. It was a game that Indiana led by 11 points in the first half and by various margins through most of 3 ½ quarters.

PHOTO GALLERY: Fever 77, Sky 83 » 

“No question about it: definitely a missed opportunity,” Fever Coach Stephanie White said after the 83-77 setback to Chicago. “This was our ball game to win. And we started playing not to lose, instead of playing to win.”

Similar words were heard all around the Fever locker room – from Indiana veterans Tamika Catchings and Briann January as well as Fever newcomer Shenise Johnson.

“Tonight we should have won that game,” Catchings said.

The triumph was Chicago’s third of the young season against Indiana. The first two came by margins of 23 and 26 points.

Clearly, the Fever (3-6) played better this time, much better, but the game broke down into a tale of two halves – and the second half didn’t favor the home team.

The Fever’s fast-paced offense was at its best in the first two quarters, leading to a 56.3 percent first-half shooting mark from the field, with 11 assists on 18 buckets. The second half flipped, with Indiana taking its foot off the gas pedal, hitting only 28 percent from the field and recording only two assists on seven total buckets.

Also, 11 second-half turnovers sabotaged a lot of what the Fever wanted to do. And the miscues led to 13 points for Chicago, which outscored the Fever 40-25 after halftime.

“I felt like we competed,” White said. “Yet when things got a little tough, we had too many breakdowns – too many breakdowns on both ends.”

Indiana’s turnovers played a large part in changing the complexion of the game.

“Not to take anything away from Chicago, a lot of it was unforced, just losing the ball, fumbling the ball,” Indiana’s Johnson said. “There’s no defense for that. If we’re giving them the ball and they’re getting layups, we can’t cover that. We have to be better.”

Johnson had 15 points and seven rebounds for the Fever. Marissa Coleman totaled 16 points and eight boards. Catchings added 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

Cappie Pondexter led Chicago with 23 points, Allie Quigley had 17 and Courtney Vandersloot added 13. Elena Delle Donne, the WNBA’s leading scorer who totaled 45 in Chicago’s overtime victory at Atlanta on Wednesday, had 14 points and 14 rebounds against the Fever.

In the second half, Indiana’s defense struggled against Chicago’s pick-and-roll. Sometimes, the Fever were late on rotations. Other times, as White said, a nice defensive possession didn’t get finished with a box-out and the Fever lost the rebound.

Indiana began the night yielding the most points per game in the WNBA, and Friday’s loss gave them a season defensive average of 82.6.

“It’s frustrating just because we’ve always been known as a defensive team,” Catchings said. “This year, it feels like so far, at times, people are on different agendas. … In order for this team to be successful, we have to play good defense and we have to stay on the same page.”

With 5:25 left in the fourth quarter, Chicago (5-3) took a 73-72 lead on a Vandersloot 3-pointer. Indiana never led again. When Delle Donne took a pass from Jessica Breland and laid it in with 27.4 seconds remaining, Chicago opened an 81-77 margin.

Postgame Quotes

Quoting Fever Head Coach Stephanie White
“I felt like we competed. When things got a little tough, we had too many breakdowns on both ends. We’ve seen a stretch of these breakdowns in every game. We have to be able to minimize the stretches. There are no easy games or easy teams in this league. But if you shoot yourself in the foot with 18 turnovers for 17 points and stop moving the ball in the second half, only had two assists and had multiple defensive breakdowns, they’re going to make you pay. I thought Cappie (Pondexter) was awesome. She was terrific. She hit with a hand in her face all night long. She really carried them and put a lot of pressure on our defense because she just made plays one-on-one.”

Quoting Sky Head Coach Pokey Chatman
“Obviously when you can get a win on the road against a very good team, it’s positive. More importantly for us, it was the second on defense. We gave up 52 points in the first half and 25 in the second. We have to make sure that we continue improving on that end of the floor. It was nice to see us play off of Elena Delle Donne. You know she’s been putting up crazy numbers so they sent a double team. And it was nice to see my team make some reads and get to open players. I think Cappie Pondexter and Courtney Vandersloot really stepped up.”

Quoting the Fever’s Briann January
(On the positives in the first half)
“I believe we had 11 assists in the first half. We were really talking on defense. We were communicating better, which is something we are continuing to grow on and we know we need to improve on. I think we did a great job of that, especially containing Delle Donne in the first half. We had a great team effort. We were working together. That’s the main part, just working together. Our schemes weren’t perfect, but we were working hard. We were working together. And I think that’s something we need to build on and we will build on moving forward.”

Quoting the Fever’s Marissa Coleman
(Why did the Sky have 20 more shot attempts?)
“I think that comes from our turnovers. We had 18. So that is a lot of possessions that we handed over to them and a lot of them were in crucial times. So we just have to clean that up, take better care of the ball.

(On the first half positives)
“We fought hard. The coaches, they came in and said we fought hard. I guess that’s a positive you can take from it. We definitely looked a lot better than our first two games against Chicago.”

Quoting the Sky’s Cappie Pondexter
(On her offense)
“My skill set was able to come alive today. Just focused in. I know what the team needed me to do, make some shots. I think we missed our first five field goals to start the game. Our leading scorer, Delle Donne (Elena), they really scouted ways to stop her. So it was my job as the second primary scorer to step up and make shots.”
(On the second half)
“Our coach at halftime came and challenged each one of us. I think we took it to heart, which says a lot about this team. We really, really want to win. We made the adjustments we needed to and we came out with the energy and focus on the defensive end.”

Quoting the Sky’s Allie Quigley
“I think that we have to get off to better starts. Our start wasn’t too great. You know we were still kinda only down by one for a little while there. I think the whole momentum changed in the second half with our defense. Everything starts with defense. And when we correct that, we can do a lot on offense.”
(On the second half)
“In the locker room we just said it’s enough talking about this. You know our defense has been bad for the last five or six games. Something had to change. It wasn’t anything technical, it was just from within. So we just had to have pride and play better defense. That’s what we did.”

June 26, 2015 – FeverBasketball.com catches up with Hall of Fame head coach Lin Dunn.

June 26, 2015 – Chicago Sky head coach Pokey Chatman and players Elena Delle Donne and Cappie Pondexter discuss their 83-77 win over the Fever.