Lynx Beats Sky in Battle of Unbeatens

The Chicago Sky’s best start stopped Monday. In a memorable Memorial Day meeting at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., the Minnesota Lynx prevailed 75-72 in a battle of the WNBA’s only remaining unbeatens.

Video below of Lauren Hoskins. For those who care (and even if you do not).

The nationally televised (ESPN2) game featured 2013 Rookie of the Year Elena Delle Donne of the Sky and 2013 Finals Most Valuable Player Maya Moore of the Lynx.

Delle Donne entered the game with a 23.5 points per game, while Moore led the league with a 33.8 scoring average. In Monday’s game, Moore finished with 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field (including 1-of-3 three-pointers) and 3-of-3 free throws. Delle Donne had 16 points (7-of-19 — 2-of-6 three-pointers — with no free-throw attempts) to share team scoring honors with Jessica Breland, who had a game-high 15 rebounds. Allie Quigley added a career-high 15 points off the bench for the Sky (4-1).

The Sky had a season-low seven free-throw attempts, five by Breland and two by Quigley.

“We needed to be more aggressive and make it obvious that we are getting fouled,” Delle Donne said. “I need to attack and get to the rim.”

Guard Lindsay Whalen led the Lynx (5-0) with 22 points. Her basket from the right corner with 48.3 left gave Minnesota a 75-69 lead that Quigley cut to three with a three-pointer.

The Sky had a chance to tie after a timeout with 12.3 seconds left but Delle Donne’s off-balance three-point attempt hit the rim and bounced off — much to the chagrin of most of the crowd of 6,058.

“We’re accustomed to seeing one of our Olympians struggle and so then the other ones step up,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. I think Seimone [Augustus, 17 points] stepped up. She responded when it was really physical and they were trying to get up in her and she just exploded past people getting to the rim.

“Whalen was definitely the difference in the win, but I think Maya had her best defensive game in her career. I don’t think a year ago she would have been able to do that.”

“Going into the game my biggest concern was defense,” Moore said. “I knew I’d be matched against Elena, and that was my main focus. If we can get some stops and our momentum defensively, everybody feels better on the offensive side. Everyone stepped up, and we shared the ball. Overall it was a really good team win.”

Speaking of defense, the Sky’s in the first quarter appeared to have the intensity that in previous games seemed to come alive in the fourth quarter. Then there was the second quarter, when the high-scoring Lynx outscored the Sky 26-20.

“I thought we had a great opportunity but never quite recovered from the second-quarter onslaught,” Sky coach Pokey Chatman said. “At crucial times we turned the ball over when we had people open.”

A Delle Donne three-pointer and a rebound basket off a Breland miss gave the Sky a 65-63 lead with 5:02 left, but Tan White (10 points) made a jumper and a layup to take a lead it did not relinquish.

“Holding Minnesota to 75 points when they average 90 you give yourself an opportunity to win,” Chatman said. “We just didn’t take advantage of the opportunity we presented ourselves with today.”

“We are a young team, and I am new here,” Breland said. “We’re just trying to get to know each other and build team chemistry. I think this game is one of the games to help with that.”

Perhaps not quite as good as remaining undefeated, but a consolation prize of some significance if Breland is correct.

Free advice to WNBA (and, remember, you get what you pay for — especially in this instance): If ESPN.com cannot find room to give the Lynx-Sky game one of its little headlines on the front page of its site, you might want to consider another television network next time you’re negotiating a TV deal. And until that time, pray that NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox or somebody else has enough interest to do a deal someday and also put you on its home page (college lacrosse made it on ESPN.com’s — in case you were wondering how highly regarded ESPN.com apparently considers the WNBA).

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the energetic efforts — even on a holiday — of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):

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