NAPHEESA Collier scored 22 points and dished seven assists, Sylvia Fowles recorded 18 points and Aerial Powers added 17 as the Minnesota Lynx weathered a second-half run to hold off the Indiana Fever, 90-80, on Sunday in Minneapolis.
Minnesota (20-10) started and finished strong en route to its seventh win in the last eight games. In between, however, the Lynx had to respond to a raucous comeback from the visiting Fever.
After trailing by a double-digit margin for much of the first half — including by as many as 16 points in the second quarter — Indiana (6-23) went on a 14-6 run in the third that changed the game’s tone.
The Fever outscored the Lynx in the period (27-15) to take a two-point advantage into the fourth. The teams exchanged the lead nine times in the final quarter and were tied four times before Minnesota’s game-ending, 12-2 run.
Kelsey Mitchell led all scorers with 25 points, 15 of which came from behind the 3-point arc. Her 5-of-7 shooting from long distance paced Indiana to an 8-of-17 team performance, and Mitchell connected on two to help keep Indiana on pace with Minnesota for much of the fourth quarter.
Victoria Vivians made two 3-pointers en route to 10 points for the Fever and dished seven assists. Lindsay Allen and Tiffany Mitchell also scored 10 points apiece, and Teaira McCowan added 17 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
Minnesota matched Indiana’s scoring balance with all five Lynx starters hitting in double figures. Joining Collier, Fowles and Powers, Kayla McBride added 12 points and Crystal Dangerfield scored four of her 11 points on consecutive possessions in the game’s waning moments to effectively seal the win.
Powers scored 13 in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, and Minnesota went into intermission connecting on 56.3 percent of its field-goal attempts as a team. The Lynx finished the night at 56.1 percent from the floor to Indiana’s 50 percent. — Reuters