Los Angeles-De Sparks in Los Angeles stopped a late game rally on Tuesday to win a 100-91 victory.
Kelsey Plum and Rickea Jackson each dropped 25 points for LA, with Plum that adds 11 assists for their seventh victory in the last eight games. Indiana, despite 34 points from Kelsey Mitchell, saw their five-game winning streak coming to an end.
Both teams exchanged buckets to open the game, with the visitors taking a one point in the second frame. But the Sparks were there to take a 54-43 lead during the break.
A Jackson Three-Pointer with 6:23 transferred to the game on 90-68, but the fever responded with a 21-5 run to lower the lead to 95-89. Azura Stevens, who ended with 19 points, added three with 1:17 to give the sparks a nine points lead that they never gave up.
Natasha Howard scored 19 points and took 7 rebounds for Indiana, while Aliyah Boston added 15 points and 9 rebounds. The team was without Point Guard Caitlin Clark, who missed her eighth consecutive game with a lies injury.
La -Coach Lynne Roberts said the team took a long way from where they went to the weekend of fourth July, when they had only won five games.
“It was really worth seeing these guys understand what it takes to really win and to hate losing. There they turned the corner, which is cool,” Roberts said. “I feel that our group is confident, but they are humble. There is no feeling of ‘we arrived’ because we did not do that. We did not achieve what we said we were going to do.”
“I am really proud of this group and I feel that we have enough pieces and talent to make a play -off run. We just have to keep our feet on gas. We have to keep pushing and getting better and better.”
Jackson said the team came together.
“As a group we play together, our momentum and our energy is really good now,” she said. “We don’t shrink – we keep coming and coming.”
The fever, which has endured many line uphues, seemed to come together lately. But Howard said they will expire.
“Tonight we were a step behind the defense, and the Sparks benefited,” she said.
Coach Stephanie White said she was proud of the resilience of the group to fight herself in the final moments of the game. But the sparks were prepared.
“La is really a good team,” she said. “Their height causes problems for us, and they have done a good job by taking our lead (schedules). Schoten did not fall, we could not go into transition because we could not get stops.”
“We have to get better at the defensive end of the floor.”
The Sparks organize the sun on Thursday, while Indiana travels to Phoenix to take the Mercury.
Photo gallery
#Sparks #fever #retain #hot #streak #Womens #Hoops #World