Chicago City Wire

The Chicago Sky were defeated by the Connecticut Sun 71-62 on Wednesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. Despite falling behind by as many as 21 points, Chicago made a late push in the fourth quarter but was unable to overtake Connecticut.

Both teams traded baskets early, with the Sky trailing by three points after the first quarter. The second quarter saw both sides lose players to ejections, and Connecticut responded by holding Chicago to just 10 points, building a 14-point lead at halftime. Kamilla Cardoso led the Sky’s effort with 24 points—18 of which came in the second half—along with nine rebounds and three assists. Elizabeth Williams posted her third double-double of the month, recording 12 points and tying her season-high with 15 rebounds. Rachel Banham contributed 10 points and five rebounds.

“We need her to do it,” Banham said about Cardoso’s performance. “She’s good enough to do it, and she’s going to continue to get better, so we really rely on her to be aggressive down low. I’m really proud of her, the bounce back that she had, and just being aggressive today.”

Chicago opened the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run that cut Connecticut’s lead to four points before Tina Charles hit a three-pointer for the Sun. Connecticut then closed out the game on an 11-6 run.

“It was a grind,” Williams said. “But we fought back. I think the biggest issue was just the turnovers, if you take those away, I thought defensively we played a pretty good game. But ultimately we just had to fight.”

Charles scored 15 points for Connecticut while shooting 50 percent from the field. Leïla Lacan led all Sun scorers with 17 points along with four rebounds and five assists. In addition, Saniya Rivers and Olivia Nelson-Ododa each recorded three steals for Connecticut.

Connecticut forced Chicago into committing 21 turnovers—including 11 steals—and turned those mistakes into 16 points. Despite this, Chicago narrowly outscored Connecticut in the paint (36-34) and held a rebounding edge (37-31).

The two teams are scheduled for another matchup later this month on August 23 in Chicago. The Sky will try to return to winning form when they host Golden State on Friday.

Head coach Tyler Marsh commented:

“I thought we just dug in. I think that sometimes when you put yourself in that deep of a hole, it’s a lot of energy that it takes to fight back from it, no matter who you’re playing against. And I think Connecticut, who plays extremely hard on both ends, they made it tough for us tonight. And you know, we continue to fight back..”