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With a game-high 24 points and career-high 22 rebounds for the Chicago Sky in an 86-75 victory against the Connecticut Sun on Friday (May 31), center Sylvia Fowles had one more impressive statistic. For the first time in a long time, the veteran from LSU was Sylvia No Fouls.
Elena Delle Donne (left) and Sylvia Fowles had 20 and 24 points, respectively.
An enterprising, intrepid, inquiring reporter (OK, so it was your humble correspondent) asked the 6-6 veteran when was the last time she had gone an entire game without committing a foul.
“Never,” she said with a smile in the Allstate Arena locker room in Rosemont, Ill., after the Sky’s WNBA regular-season home opener.
OK, that qualifies as a long time.
Fowles enjoyed early success in her matchup with all-star center Tina Charles, who had 16 points and led the Sun with 15 rebounds. Fowles had 13 points and six rebounds as the Sky took a 26-16 lead after one quarter. Charles (8-of-24 from the field for the game) was 2-for-9 in the first quarter.
Fowles scored the team’s last 10 points of the first quarter and 13 of its final 15 for the period. It was a definite change from the season opener when she had early foul trouble that limited her to 22 minutes (and nine points) in a 102-80 victory at Phoenix.
“We talked most of training camp about toughness, and that’s what toughness looks like,” Sky coach Pokey Chatman said of Fowles’ effort against Connecticut. “Twenty-four and 22 against arguably one of the best centers in the world, and I thought she [Fowles] established her play early even when she was very active and missed shots, she didn’t stop. She screened well.
“If you look at the points and rebounds, she stayed active throughout, and I think that set the tone. Outrebound any team by 14 [the Sky had a 46-32 edge] is really really good, and I think that established some of the toughness areas that we are trying to work on.”
“Training camp went very well for us,” Fowles said in assessing the Sky (2-0). “Just to have some veterans and have some people who have been here before like Epiphanny Prince [who had 17 points], Tamera Young [who had nine rebounds vs. the Sun] and Carolyn Swords to bring these newcomers in. Everything has been good. Everyone has been working together and playing as a team. I’m happy.”
Among the newcomers is No. 2 overall draft pick Elena Delle Donne, who had 20 points in her home debut and received the loudest ovation from the crowd announced at 6,607 in pregame introductions. She had 11 of the team’s 18 second-quarter points in taking a 44-39 halftime lead. Delle Donne scored the team’s last seven points of the opening half.
“She creates a mismatch for people,” Chatman said of Delle Donne. “We ran three plays right off the bat just to see how they would go off her, and that gives you an indication with play calls later on in the game. It’s a quiet 20 points. She takes one dribble, two people run at her, somebody else is open for board coverage. … She has a special skill set. She’s going to get better.”
“It was great to be home and have our home crowd,” Delle Donne said. “They were getting loud, really getting into every play. It’s awesome playing here having them behind us.”
There may be some cheering for the visiting team Sunday when Tulsa is the opponent. Skylar Diggins, the No. 3 overall selection from Notre Dame, will be in the Shock lineup.
“Sylvia got to off a quick start, big start,” Sun coach Anne Donovan said. “When you are on the road it’s really important to get off to a great start defensively, and I don’t think we did that.”
“She had a great game,” Charles said of Fowles. “She can honestly do that every night if she wanted to you, but it’s just different ways to contain her, different ways to get her out of her game. She did great tonight and she should be doing that every night.”
If Fowles can do that on a consistent basis, we might have to give her a nickname: “Syl the Thrill” would seem more than fair. Especially if she can continue to avoid fouls.
Pregame and postgame video from the Sky contest:
Well, as long as we’re going to run video, here you go with another daily dose of the non-gratuitous variety — thanks to the editorial and video staffs at elliottharris.com and the fact that they don’t know the meaning of “gratuitous” (not to mention a whole bunch of other words, too). Let the record show that today marks the first appearance of any Prancercise on this site:
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