Kelsey Mitchell scored a game-high 25 points on Thursday to help lead the Indiana Fever to an 83-71 victory over the Atlanta Dream in Indianapolis.
Aliyah Boston had 19 points and seven rebounds and Caitlin Clark tallied 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for the Fever (5-4), who snapped a brief two-game losing streak.
Jordin Canada and Allisha Gray led Atlanta (6-3) with 13 points apiece, while Naz Hillmon scored 12 and Angel Reese finished with an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Dream, who had won four of their previous five entering play.
Trailing by nine at halftime, Atlanta began the third with a 9-2 run, cutting its deficit to 40-38 on Gray’s layup.
The run continued after an Indiana timeout, as the Dream grabbed a 43-42 lead when Hillmon hit a 3-pointer at the 6:16 mark of the third. From there, the Fever answered with an 11-0 run, ending on six straight points from Mitchell.
Indiana’s lead ballooned to 60-46 on Myisha Hines-Allen’s layup with 1:48 left in the third. Indiana led by 11 after Mitchell went 5-for-5 for 11 points in the quarter.
A pair of Reese free throws cut the Atlanta deficit to nine, but Clark’s layup and Sophie Cunningham’s triple extended the Fever lead to 71-57 at the 3:57 mark.
The margin never got closer than nine across the last three minutes as the Fever finished a comfortable win.
After falling behind by four early, Indiana answered with a 9-2 run, taking a 15-12 lead on Mitchell’s 3-pointer. Madina Okot scored the final three points of the first quarter for Atlanta to knot the score at 15 apiece entering the second.
The Fever opened the second quarter with 3-pointers from Clark and Boston to open up a 21-15 edge.
Canada’s triple pulled the Dream within two, but Mitchell her second 3-pointer to stamp a 7-0 spurt and give the Fever a 30-21 lead.
Isobel Borlase and Mitchell traded baskets in the final minute of the first half as the Fever took a 38-29 lead into halftime. Mitchell led all scorers with 14 first-half points, while Canada and Hillmon paced the Dream with seven points apiece.
–Field Level Media
