Sky’s Comback Falls Short

By: Jerome Cusson

Although the Chicago Sky lost by only eight points Thursday night to the San Antonio Silver Stars, the stats don’t tell the whole story of the 75-67 defeat.

The second and third quarters proved to be the end for the Sky on this night as they shot 28 and 33 percent from the field respectively. The Silver Stars were led by their Belgium born center, Ann Wauters. The 10-year veteran carved the Sky’s man defense apart, in the first quarter alone scoring 17 points. For the game she would end up with a double-double, 23 points and 11 rebounds.

“You’re not going to get many chances with Ann Wauters playing like that,” Sky coach Steven Key said.

Key said that when his team’s man defense didn’t work, he tried a zone. This opened the doors for guards Backy Hammon and Edwige Lawson-Wade to get wide open shots and drive the lane. The guards combined for 23 points.

Coming off a loss to the once winless Atlanta Dream, the Sky had to contend with a tall and speedy Silver Stars team that has risen to the top of the Western Conference in the WNBA. Despite all this Coach Key believes in his team.

“It was obvious we could play with them,” Key said.

The biggest problem for the Sky was an inability to play a complete 40 minutes. Only a late 23-10 run in the fourth quarter prevented the Sky from being totally being blown out. In addition to being outshot, the Silver Stars dismantled the Sky in the paint 22-10 in the first half when the game was still in doubt. For the game, the Sky were also outrebounded 41-28, but the Sky don’t believe rebounding is the only reason they lost this game.

“It comes down to defense,” forward Armintie Price said, “It’s not just rebounding, but the big key is defense.”

Guard Jia Perkins, who led the Sky with 17 points [11 in the fourth quarter], also believes good defense will lead to other positives for the team.

“By starting with good defense, that goes to our offense,” Perkins said, “When we started stealing the ball in the fourth quarter, we started scoring.”

Despite the loss, Perkins will be able to take some positives away with the way the team played in the fourth quarter.

“We kept fighting even though we were down 20,” Perkins said, “but we stayed with it and stayed positive.

The struggling Sky, now 5-12, head to a big weekend. First up are the Indiana Fever on Saturday. On Sunday, the Sky will get a chance for revenge on the Atlanta Dream. The Fever are the third seed in the Eastern Conference at 9-9 while the Dream are the only team below the Sky in the standings.

If the Sky have postseason aspirations, they must take both games to regain some momentum. As of this writing, the Sky were three games back of the New York Liberty for the fourth and final playoff spot. A three-game losing streak does not bode well for the Sky, but if the fourth quarter is any indication, this Sky team is far from ready to quit.

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Jerome Cusson is a proud graduate of Columbia College Chicago. Currently, he is a freelance writer and a contributer to such websites as The Cool Kids' Table and giveawaytheending.com. Check out his NSR blog as well.

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