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Sky Wed Aug 11 2010
Sky Best Phoenix Mercury for the First Time...Ever
Since their first match up in 2006, the Chicago Sky have never beaten the Phoenix Mercury. Until now. Despite the latter team's superior record (they were the 2009 WNBA Champions), and following Chicago's positively dismal 87-22 loss to Minnesota, the Sky were able to pull ahead of the Mercury to win 91-82 in a thrilling and contentious game tonight at the Allstate Arena.
In the words of the basketball sages, it was a tale of two halves. After a patchy first quarter, the Chicago Sky let the Mercury get into a second quarter rhythm that brought the Mercury to a 44-35 lead. Some theatrics on the Sky's part couldn't compete with the Mercury's consistency and superior ball movement.
Then, late in the third quarter, all hell broke loose. Sky center Sylvia Fowles suddenly couldn't miss, and a flustered Mercury entered the fourth quarter devoid of all previous precision. A newly hopeful Sky pulled ahead by as much as 16, when, with three minutes left in the game, Fowles was hit with a double technical after overreacting to a series of questionable fouls. Her ejection only served to invigorate the rest of the Chicago squad, and the visibly frustrated Mercury could do little more than trade fouls with the Sky. Adding insult to injury, Mercury star player Diana Taurasi, already carrying a technical foul from earlier in the game, was ejected after a charge and then a hard shove to the Sky's Mistie Bass earned both players a technical foul, Taurasi's second. All this drama, which effectively stopped play for over a minute as the teams regrouped, occurred with only 29.1 seconds left in the game.
This win marked the end of a five-game losing streak for the Sky, whose record is now 13 and 17. A decent crowd of 4,089 was on hand to witness the win.
