After two games away from Chicago, the Sky return home to try to turn the season around with one month remaining, starting Friday with a matchup against the Golden State Valkyries.
Chicago (8-24) is on a 1-11 skid, which included the absence of star forward Angel Reese in the last six contests. A back injury continues to keep Reese out of games, with no timetable provided by the Sky or head coach Tyler Marsh.
On Wednesday against the host Connecticut Sun, the Sky were down 27-21 in the second quarter when Chicago’s Rebecca Allen and Connecticut’s Bria Hartley got into a shoving match that led to both players’ ejections, along with the ejection of Sky starting guard Ariel Atkins for joining the altercation.
Their ejections turned into a 15-7 run for the Sun to end the first half in a 71-62 win, Chicago’s third defeat in a row. Without Atkins, the Sky struggled but still battled back late in the fourth quarter.
“Ariel (Atkins) is one of one. Obviously as a player, as an Olympian, but as a person more importantly, and I think she just does a great job of lifting everybody up,” Chicago’s Elizabeth Williams said. “So, we just tried to emulate that as much as possible.”
The Valkyries (17-15) traveled to Chicago after Golden State defeated the host Washington Mystics 88-83 on Wednesday night in a game that was not as close as the final score indicates.
In the second quarter, the Valkyries were up 25 points and held the Mystics’ All-Star rookie guard Sonia Citron to two points in the first three quarters. Golden State, led by career highs in scoring from Veronica Burton (30) and Cecilia Zandalasini (20), weathered Citron’s 13-point barrage in the final quarter to hold on to the victory.
That’s something the team struggled with earlier in the season due in part to roster instability.
“It’s the stop of changes of the roster and also, you know, no more EuroBasket,” head coach Natalie Nakase said. “So, we finally have a team that I feel like we now have some rhythm.”
Golden State has two victories over Chicago this season, including a 73-66 win in Chicago on Aug. 1 behind an 18-point performance from Burton.
–Field Level Media
