Catchings passes Leslie for WNBA FT record; Fever win
Notes from Kevin Messenger, Indiana Fever PR (Twitter @kmess65).
With her six free throws made in Saturday’s 84-70 win over Chicago, Tamika Catchings moved ahead of Lisa Leslie as the WNBA’s all-time leader in that department. Catchings ends tonight’s game having hit 1,478 free throws in her career.
The Fever snapped its three-game losing streak and extends its winning streak in the series with Chicago to three in a row.
Tonight’s win is the Fever’s 11th straight home win in the series with the Sky.
With tonight’s win the Fever avoided losing both games of a back-to-back for the first time since the first two games (5/15-16) of the 2010 season.
The Sky shot 12-13 from the floor in the first quarter and that is the third best shooting percentage in a single quarter by one team in WNBA history.
For the game, the Sky shot 28-55 FG (.509) and is the first Indiana opponent to top 50 percent from the field in 2012.
Jessica Davenport led the Fever with a season-high 19 points, the most by any Indiana reserve this season. Her 9-9 from the floor tonight tops the Fever franchise record for a single game she set by hitting 8-8 FG at Connecticut last June (6/11/10). Only four times in franchise history has a Fever player attempted at least six shots in a game without a miss and Davenport has two of those four games. Kara Wolters was 7-7 from the floor at Portland, 7/28/00, and Natalie Williams hit 7-7 FG at Washington, 9/1/04.
With her 19 points tonight, Davenport needs just nine for 1,000 in her WNBA career.
The Fever had a season-high 19 assists tonight, including Katie Douglas’s career-high tying eight and Briann January’s six, which tied her most this season. Douglas’s eight are the most by any Fever player this season.
Tamika Catchings tied a season-high with four steals tonight and the Fever had nine thefts. Indiana has had at least eight steals in seven of eight games this season.
Indiana outscored the Sky in the paint, 36-34, registering its most points in the paint this season, and just its second of 30+ points in the paint in eight games.
The Fever scored 30 of its 84 points off 21 Chicago turnovers. That is Indiana’s most points off turnovers this season and 21 miscues marks the third time that an Indiana opponent has had 20+ turnovers.
The Fever had just 12 turnovers, tying its fewest of 2012.
Including her 4-4 FT tonight, Briann January has shot 20-21 FT for a WNBA-leading 95.2 percent.
nice stuff as always. favor LA or MINN to win 2012 championship.but no1 rootn harder 4 my tamika,briann n fever. worry bout lack of foot speed in post; only mika true forward; several key plyrs make poor decisions n react slowly to situations. but we gotta a shot. GO FEVER 🙂