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Fever Make Up for Previous Loss, Dominate Dream
Posted Sunday, August 31, 2008
 Tammy Sutton Brown is defended by Erika Desouza. Photo by Sue Wilden. |
INDIANAPOLIS - Even before the game tipped off, the Fever made it known to their fans that they had come to play, and play hard. Indiana’s efforts from the tip to the final horn did nothing to disappoint the hometown crowd.
Three Fever players scored more than twenty points apiece as Indiana bounced back from Thursday night’s troubling loss to Connecticut by beating the visiting Atlanta Dream 87-72. The win was just Indiana’s second in their past six games and snapped a four-game home losing streak.
The night was filled with fantastic performances by the Fever. Forward Tamika Catchings led the way for the Fever, scoring 23 to lead the team, including three straight 3-pointers in the third quarter. Guard Katie Douglas and center Tammy Sutton-Brown added 21 points each to complete the Fever trifecta of well-rounded scoring performances. Fever forward and strong candidate for the WNBA Most Improved Player Award Ebony Hoffman set a career-high in offensive rebounds with seven and total rebounds with 14.
But the tone for the night was set by a player that was only on the floor for 40 seconds – during the game at least. Before the game, veteran guard Alison Feaster came out and spoke to the fans, saying, “From the bottom of my heart, you guys are the best fans in the world, and no matter what the outcome – win, lose, or draw – you will get a better effort from us tonight.”
The statement energized the fans and the players alike – the Fever jumped out to a 27-11 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks in large part to a 20-3 run to close out the opening period.
Dream guard Betty Lennox led all scorers with 27 points on (10-15) shooting, but didn’t get a lot of help from her teammates to go with it. While Erika Desouza added 15 points and Iziane Castro Marques pitched in 11 of her own, no other Dream player would score more than four points. That futility touched nearly every aspect of the game – the Fever had more total rebounds (35-22), offensive rebounds (13-3), assists (14-10), and blocks (6-4), as well as fewer turnovers (19-22).
Fever coach Lin Dunn was happy to see the improvement.
“Well, it sure feels better tonight than it did Thursday night," she said. "We got on the boards, we upped our defensive intensity – I really thought we did some things a lot better tonight that we didn’t do the other night, and it was good to see them respond.”
The Fever improve their record to 13-15 and head off on a four-game road trip that begins in Washington Tuesday night. With the win, Indiana moves three games ahead of the Mystics for the fourth and final play-off spot, while moving to within 2.5 games of New York for the third spot. Atlanta falls to 3-26 and return home to host the Seattle Storm Tuesday night.
NOTES: The game was held on Breast Health Awareness Night, and after the game, Indiana guard Katie Douglas and her sister Kim spoke to the fans about getting breast exams on a regular basis. The sisters lost both parents to cancer before Katie had graduated from Purdue and spoke not only about the impact that the disease had had on their family, but also the importance of early detection.
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