Two days removed from earning their first home victory in 51 weeks, the Indiana Fever will pursue their second straight road victory on Thursday night when they visit the Chicago Sky.
Rookie Aliyah Boston recovered from a tough outing in her previous game to lead the host Fever past the Washington Mystics, 87-66, on Tuesday. Boston registered her third career double-double, contributing 23 points on 11-for-14 shooting to go with 14 rebounds.
“She wants to be great, and she’s doing it,” Fever coach Christie Sides said. “She’s doing things to help her get to where she wants to be. She has all the intangibles.”
And with that, Boston had a helping hand in steering the Fever (3-6) to their first win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse since June 19, 2022.
Efficient offense and mental toughness on defense bolstered the Fever down the stretch.
“It was drilled into our head about that fourth quarter,” said Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell, who had 19 points to become the second-leading scorer in franchise history with 2,581 points.
Mitchell added that Sides “put the nail in the coffin about us being resilient” considering a recent rash of lost late leads.
That includes a 108-103 overtime loss at Chicago on June 6. The Fever led by five points entering the fourth quarter but were outscored 46-36 the rest of the way.
Chicago (5-5) has lost two straight since then, both in lopsided fashion. A two-game road trip out West included Friday’s 15-point loss at Los Angeles before a 13-point setback in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Sky coach James Wade said having a three-day break between games “gives us some practice time to kind of get some players more involved and kind of fix some things that we saw this weekend.”
Kahleah Copper, who scored 18 points Sunday, two shy of Marina Mabrey’s team high, agreed.
“It’s just going to be good to get back home, rest,” Copper said. “Really be able to practice and find our flow of things.”
Mabrey led Chicago with 28 points in the June 6 matchup with Indiana, scoring 18 in the first half. Boston scored 25 points in the game for the Fever.
–Field Level Media
