CHICAGO – The Indiana Fever (16-16) closed its regular-season series with the Chicago Sky in a dominant 100-81 victory at Wintrust Arena on Friday night. Indiana scored a season-high 100 points and improved its record to .500 or better in the month of August or later for the first time since the 2016 season.
Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark scored a career-high 31 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 5-of-9 from 3-point range and went 10-of-11 from the free throw line in the third win of the season against the Sky. Clark also dished out 12 assists for her 11th double-double of the season and passed Ticha Penicheiro for the most games by a rookie in WNBA history to record at least 10 assists with nine. Clark enters Sunday needing only six points to secure the most points ever scored by a Fever rookie trailing only Tamika Catchings’ 594 points.
Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell followed with 23 points on 9-of-13 field goal shooting and 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. Friday extended Mitchell’s franchise record to six-consecutive games scoring at least 20 points and also moved her to a tie with Renee Montgomery for 15th on the WNBA all-time 3-point field goals made list with 532.
Fever forward NaLyssa Smith added 14 points, 11 of which came in the third quarter alone, to go along with seven rebounds in the win, which moved her past Teaira McCowan for fifth on the Fever all-time rebounds list with 777. Fever guard Lexie Hull earned her third start of the season Friday night as she recorded 11 points, which included three made 3-point field goals. Fever reserve forward Damiris Dantas and center Aliyah Boston combined for 16 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two blocks in the win as well.
Indiana led the entire second half and built the advantage to as much as 27 points toward the end of the game. Chicago started the game on a 21-9 run, sparked by Lindsay Allen’s back-to-back 3-point field goals. Indiana responded with a 12-2 run of its own to end the quarter and cut the early deficit down to three going into the second quarter. Clark opened up the second quarter with back-to-back 3-point field goals and Indiana ended the first half leading, 47-42. The Fever scored 31 points in the third quarter, which was the highest scoring third quarter for the Fever this season, to begin pulling away from Chicago.
Chicago’s (11-20) losing streak extended to five games on Friday, which marks its longest losing streak of the season. Sky forward Michaela Onyenwere led Chicago with a season-high 20 points and six rebounds and Allen trailed with a season-high 19 points, six assists and four rebounds. Sky guard Rachel Banham tallied 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Sky rookie forward Angel Reese ended with 10 points and 11 rebounds.