Kayla McBride scored a season-high 28 points and Sylvia Fowles finished with a double-double as the Minnesota Lynx rallied from a nine-point third quarter deficit to stop the Indiana Fever 87-77 Friday night in Indianapolis.
Fowles scored 15 of her 22 points after halftime to help fuel the Minnesota surge and grabbed 12 rebounds for her second double-double in as many nights. Jessica Shepard came off the bench to chip in 11 points and dish out five assists.
Playing their third game in four nights, the Lynx (10-16) moved within a game of Phoenix for the WNBA’s final playoff spot with 10 games left. Minnesota drew 26 assists on 32 made field goals and cut turnovers from 12 in the first half to five after halftime.
Tiffany Mitchell came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points for Indiana (5-21), which dropped its eighth straight game. Kelsey Mitchell added 17, but the Fever made just 36.6 percent of their field goal attempts and were outrebounded 41-37.
Indiana cut a 15-point deficit to 78-72 on Destanni Henderson’s driving layup with 3:40 left, but Fowles’ putback with 3:10 remaining stopped the late surge.
Minnesota opened up a 13-5 lead just over four minutes into the game when McBride converted a three-point play. But Indiana fought back with a 10-2 spurt and forged a 22-22 tie after one quarter as Kelsey Mitchell converted a corner 3-pointer.
Turnovers bogged the Lynx down for most of the second quarter. The Fever led by as many as six on three different occasions but settled for a 38-37 edge at the break after managing just one bucket in the final 3:11.
Emily Engstler hit a layup at the 5:37 mark of the third quarter to give Indiana a 52-43 lead. But the game changed for good moments later as Minnesota rattled off 15 straight points and ended the period with a 24-5 spurt, giving it a 67-57 advantage going into the fourth period.
–Field Level Media