Short-handed Dream suffer heartbreak in overtime loss to Fever
In a game that could’ve gone either way towards the end, the Indiana Fever pulled away with a 95-91 win against the Dream in overtime on Sunday.
After grabbing an early 83-81 lead in overtime, the Dream gave up eight straight points to the Fever, who never lost the lead in overtime again, although the Dream got within two points, 93-91, with 10 seconds left.
Allisha Gray tied her career high with 32 points to lead all scorers, while Angel Reese finished with another double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
Caitlin Clark, despite shooting just 3-for-10 from 3-point range, led the Fever with 26 points and 9 assists.
The contest started as a back-and-forth matchup, with both teams trading baskets. Even when the Fever pulled away in the second quarter, the Dream used effective ball movement to work their way out of a jam and took the lead going into halftime, 44-40.
With Brionna Jones out with a left leg injury and Jordin Canada sidelined with an illness, Jaylyn Sherrod stepped up as the team’s primary point guard Sunday. Though she’s still figuring out how to finish at the basket after quick drives down the court, she held her own as a starter while navigating through the Fever’s defense.
Head coach Karl Smesko emptied his weapons early, with Aaliyah Nye, Madina Okot and Isobel Borlase making early appearances to help fuel the team in the first quarter. Te-Hina Paopao, who had been sidelined since mid-July, also checked in for the first time since suffering her right leg injury.
Key Moments
Borlase sparked the Dream’s offense with quality shot selections and quick releases from both the 3-point line and in the paint. Alongside Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard, she helped Atlanta shoot 25.81% from beyond the arc, which was essential in pulling away from the Fever early on.
Top performers
Dream
Allisha Gray: 32 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists
Angel Reese: 15 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists
Rhyne Howard: 17 points, 5 assists
Madina Okot: 8 points, 7 rebounds
Fever
Caitlin Clark: 26 points, 9 assists
Makayla Timpson: 20 points, 7 rebounds
Kelsey Mitchell: 20 points
Aliyah Boston: 18 points, 14 rebounds
Highlight Play
With 1:46 left in the second quarter, Borlase knocked down a 3-pointer right at the shot-clock buzzer off an assist from Okot. That also tied the game at 38-38. goes here.
Quotable:
“That we’re right there. I know tonight didn’t go the way that we wanted to, but we had some plays down, and we showed some fight. And I think it’s, although we need to get the win, I think it’s yeah, some problems that we know that we can beat a team like that.” - Isobel Borlase on what she took away from the loss
“I mean, she knows she’ll make a shot, but in that moment, you just got to encourage the teammates. Like no one person lost us the game. It’s just a team effort, and just like she’s with us when we’re struggling, we do the same thing for Angel. I mean, it’s a sisterhood. Like we really love each other, support each other. So, I’ll put everything on the line that the next time she gets a shot like that, she’ll make it 100%. It’s just this time she came a little short, but I mean, I have all the faith in the world in Angel.” – Allisha Gray on the team encouraging Reese.
“I mean it happens. You have to go with what you have. I think the players that played today gave us a great chance to win. I mean, we’re literally one possession, you know, from winning the game against a very good team who’s been playing really well. But JC is a fantastic point guard, and obviously, particularly against the zone, she’s somebody that we count on for penetrating to the middle and then passing it out to our shooters or dumping it down behind. And then just she made such a difference in our transition game and gives us an actually really good defender out there. So we miss her, but you know she couldn’t go today. So the people that went, I thought, did well enough to win, but unfortunately we came up a possession short.” - Coach Karl Smesko on missing Canada.
“I think it shows that we have a really good team. Indiana’s excellent, and despite being short-handed, we were right there. That’s why it hurt so much, just because we were right there. Just have to be able to finish that off a little bit better… fourth quarters have usually been ours, but one thing in the past we had trouble with is they get to the fourth quarter, and then we just watch one person with the ball try to create everything. And it was just a weird time for that to come back up. Like that hasn’t been us all year, and I don’t expect it to be us going forward. And even, despite that, we had our chance to win. - Smesko on the team’s mindset moving forward.