NaLyssa Smith’s 3-point play with 39 seconds left Sunday lifted the Indiana Fever to an 89-87 win over the short-handed Chicago Sky in Indianapolis.
Smith finished with a season-high 26 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for Indiana (5-13), which canned 50.7 percent of its field goal attempts and thumped Chicago on the glass 39-27. Kelsey Mitchell scored 13 points, while reserves Emma Cannon and Lexie Hull added 11 and 10, respectively.
Kahleah Copper scored a game-high 28 points on just 13 shots for the Sky (10-5), sinking 4 of 6 from the 3-point line. Courtney Vandersloot added 13 points and seven assists, while Emma Meesseman hit for 12 points.
Chicago had three point-blank looks at the bucket after Smith’s go ahead bucket but missed them all. After Victoria Vivians made 1 of 2 foul shots with 7.8 seconds remaining, the Sky had a chance to force overtime. But Vandersloot missed a baseline jumper and time expired before Chicago could collect an offensive rebound.
The Sky wasted a good offensive effort, as they made 47.1 percent from the field and 9 of 20 3-pointers. Indiana improved to 3-6 under interim coach Carlos Knox.
With Candace Parker (knee) missing her second straight game, Chicago and Indiana played a defense-optional first quarter. The game was 11-11 just past the 3 1/2-minute mark and the Fever eventually took a 28-25 lead to the second period on Tiffany Mitchell’s layup off a steal.
The last six minutes of the first half was all Sky. Starting with Ruthy Hebard’s bank shot from out top, they embarked on a 21-3 run. When Copper converted a 3-point play with 3.8 seconds left, Chicago went to the locker room up 50-37.
But Indiana erupted in perhaps its best quarter of the year, outscoring the Sky 35-20. It erased a 15-point deficit in about five minutes and took a 72-70 edge to the fourth period when Hull canned two free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining.
–Field Level Media
