By Lindsay Burke
The Indiana Fever’s late heroic comeback came up short in their 81-80 loss at home to the Dallas Wings. Having a short-handed roster showed gaps on the offensive side as the team trailed for much of the game. Sophie Cunningham filled in at point guard shooting 50 percent from the field after draining 14 points including the game tying shot just before the half after the Fever trailed by as many as 15. She’s the spark the Fever needs especially being faced with such a depleted roster. Veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell led the way finishing with 24 points.
Dallas kept swinging after giving up their double digit lead. Maddie Seigrist was their strongest shooter on the night and stepped up in a big way while facing their own injury woes competing without Arike Ogunbowale. She was 9-13 in field goal shooting and finished with 22 points. The Fever just couldn’t keep momentum going after Myisha Hines-Allen took a wraparound pass from Paige Bueckers to give the Wings a 78-61 lead with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter.
A missed free-throw with 14 seconds left in the game gave the Fever plenty of time to drive down the court for a game winning shot after Natasha Howard came down with the rebound. Once the Fever got down on the offensive side of the floor head coach Stephanie White opted to use her reset timeout just as Kelsey Mitchell was getting smothered by the sideline. The inbound ended back up in Mitchell’s hands who was trapped in the corner and put up a shot that landed short as time expired. Natasha Howard added 12 points and dominated in the paint once again with 12 rebounds.
Dallas’ Bueckers finished with 16 points and eight assists to lead her team to a 9-24 record. Their playoff hopes are diminished but can spoiler the rest of the way for potential playoff bound teams. The Fever had several chances to win this one, but put the pressures on themselves by committing 18 turnovers and allowing Dallas to capitalize on all that occurred in the first half.
The Fever look to bounce back at home against the Washington Mystics Friday at 7:30 p.m.