Indianapolis, In – Scraping, kicking, and scoring is all that the Indiana Fever knew to do to get that elusive victory this year. The New York Liberty made a house call with Kia Nurse who secured a win in OT 87-81.
The Fever never went away playing tough 48 minutes but just didn’t have an answer for the rookie Nurse who scored 34 points to lead both teams. This scoring barrage is the most points by a Liberty rookie.
“Kia Nurse had a heck of a ball game, said Liberty coach Katie Smith, “but again the defensive side of getting those stops, getting down there and getting a score.”
For the Fever their rookie Kelsey Mitchell dropped her career high with 26 points in defeat.
“We have to maintain a higher level of play at both ends of the floor for longer than 32 minutes,” said Fever coach Pokey Chatman, “We continue having lapses in play that seem to bury us.”
Being tied at end of regulation after coming back from 20 points down can at least be a moral victory.
Veteran Candice Dupree scored 16 points, and 8 rebounds playing 40 plus minutes in the game.
“We’ve shown that we can play defense, we just need to do it for 40 minutes now,” said Dupree, “We got down in the stance and took away whatever it was that they were trying to do.”
Once this team can stay hot a play both sides of the ball the win column will grow.
The Fever outscored the Liberty in the second half by 18 points, because of their grit and determination.
“Get tired of losing. Everybody in here talking about how young we are and everything else,” said Mitchell, ” But just tired of losing. So I think that was the difference in the first and second half.”
The Fever will have few days of home cooking and week at home to practice. They will host the Dallas Wings on Friday June 8.
