CHICAGO -- After a thrilling opening 39 minutes and 52.5 seconds on Thursday night, there was nothing to separate the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky. But there would be no overtime; Kelsey Mitchell made sure of that. Taking the ball at the top of the key, Mitchell waited for a high screen from Aliyah Boston, drove to her right, stepped back and drained a last-second jumper to give the Fever a 92-90 win.
"I knew that we were gonna do something towards the rim and utilize [Aliyah Boston]," Mitchell said. "Shout out to AB because they ended up sending people to her. Maya [Caldwell] ended up throwing it to me, I saw the clock go down, I took a deep breath and I noticed that the scheme was different and so I shot the pull-up."
KELSEY MITCHELL HITS THE GAME WINNING BUCKET. pic.twitter.com/CgAtnwaZ3w
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) June 16, 2023
Mitchell is the Fever's leading scorer at 19 points per game, but she was struggling early against the Sky's aggressive defense. She didn't make a single shot in the first half and was 2-of-11 from the field entering the fourth quarter. But down the stretch, she figured things out. Over the final 3:09, she either scored or assisted on eight of the Fever's final 12 points to pull out the win.
"All the confidence in the world in Kelsey Mitchell," Fever head coach Christie Sides said. "We went to go inside first, but we knew they were probably going to take that away, which was gonna help Kelsey get open a little bit more, she came off, nothing but confidence in her, drained it. She works on those kind of shots every day after practice... when she let it go I knew it was going in. I did, I did. She needed it, it was awesome."
The Fever have now won two games in a row for their first winning streak in over a year, and have improved to 4-6 on the season. After just 10 games they have nearly matched last season's win total (five) and are on pace for their best season since 2016, which is the last time they made the playoffs.
Sides was adamant that it's too early to start talking about the postseason, but everyone in Indiana is encouraged about the way they've played over the first month. In Boston, Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith, the Fever have one of the best young cores in the league and it's clear they're trending in the right direction.
"We joke about it all the time," Mitchell said. "[Victoria Vivians] just walked in the locker room and said 'we're on a two-game winning streak.' Although it's not much to everyone else, on a more serious note, me and Tori have seen it all in our six years here in Indiana. It hasn't been easy, I think we can all agree to that. To see a little light at the end of the tunnel, it feels good.
"As much as we gotta move on to the next game and respond to the next team, we gotta take in these moments. It's important for us. We know what we been through. We know all the blood, sweat and tears and the work that was put in to be here. To all of a sudden see good stuff happening, it's just a good feeling."
