Indian Fever WNBA Champions.
http://www.examiner.com/article/tamika-catchings-leads-indiana-fever-to-long-awaited-wnba-championship
NDIANAPOLIS – The final piece of the puzzle in Tamika Catchings’ Hall of Fame career has come into place. She is a WNBA champion.
Catchings scored 25 points and dished eight assists Sunday as her Indiana Fever captured its first-ever WNBA title with an 87-78 victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game Four of the Finals in front of a sellout crowd of over 15,000 that included her college coach Pat Summitt.
The three-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time World champion and NCAA champion was named MVP of the Finals, averaging 22.3 points, six rebounds and 3.5 assists, adding that superlative to her 2011 regular season MVP, 2000 NCAA Player of the Year award, and five Defensive Player of the Year awards.
“This journey has been full of ups and downs,” the 33-year-old Catchings said, “full of trials and tribulations, full of tears and happy faces. But today we stand with happy faces, and I like that.”
The Fever lost to the Phoenix Mercury in five games in 2009, its only other Finals appearance.
It not only was the first title for Catchings, but for Katie Douglas and Tammy Sutton-Brown, who have also played 12 seasons in the league with multiple All-Star selections.
The defending champion Lynx, who opened the season 10-0 and finished with the league’s best record of 27-7, failed in its attempt at being the first repeat champions since the 2001-02 Los Angeles Sparks.
“It was hard being the hunted,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “There’s a reason this hasn’t been done in over 10 years. I really felt like if there was a team that could do it, it was our team because we have tremendous resolve and great people that are unselfish, and those are really key ingredients.”
Erin Phillips added 18 points, while Shavonte Zellous and Arizona State alumna Briann January both scored 15 for the Fever. Erlana Larkins controlled the boards again for Indiana with 13 rebounds, Lindsay Whalen finished with 22 points and eight assists, and Maya Moore scored 16 for the Lynx.
Phillips scored seven of the Fever’s first 11 points, and Indiana would double up on Minnesota early, 18-9. The Fever was up seven, 25-18, after one.
“We came out with a lot of lot of adrenaline, and I felt the momentum carried over from Friday’s game,” Catchings said. “We came out knowing from a defensive standpoint, we needed to jump on them straight from the beginning, offensively just sharing the ball.”
In the second quarter, the Lynx began closing the gap, with Lindsay Whalen cutting the lead to one midway through. Rebekkah Brunson tied it at 38-38 with 3:30 to go and again at 40-40 two minutes later. Catchings drained two free throws, and Jessica Adair knotted it at 42-42 with a little over a minute left. However, Catchings would hit a three, and January scored to put Indiana up five at the break. Whalen led all with 14 points, and Catchings and Phillips both had 13.
Catchings came out of halftime hot, scoring a three 30 seconds in to put her team up eight, and the lead increased to 10 after her seventh point of the first three minutes. The Lynx would answer with an 8-0 run in the next two minutes, capitalized with a beautiful Maya Moore layup. She tied it at 56-56 with a similar play two and a half minutes later, only to be answered with a dead-on Catchings three. Catchings then picked off Whalen on the other end, and Jessica Davenport made it 61-56 in the post.
A Karima Christmas three put the Fever back up six in the fourth quarter, but Erin Thorn halfened that lead with one of her own on the ensuing Lynx possession. A Shavonte Zellous three from the corner soon put the Fever back up eight with five minutes remaining.
After a timeout with 1:10 left, January found the bottom of the rim on a three again and would sink four free throws with 19.7 and 3.2 seconds to seal the deal. Fever coach Lin Dunn then inserted Katie Douglas at 3.2 to a rousing ovation from the crowd, the only three seconds she would see in the series after suffering a sprained left ankle in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“I just thought Catchings and January and Larkins and Erin Phillips and Z (Shavonte Zellous) were on a mission,” Dunn said, “and I don’t know if Katie being hurt further motivated them or not, but they were just amazing this whole series.”
There were so many players on the Fever roster who had this moment coming to them for a long time.
Douglas is a four-time All-Star and five-time member of the All-Defensive Team after winning the 1999 NCAA title at Purdue.
Toronto native Sutton-Brown played in two All-Star Games, led Rutgers to the 2000 Final Four (losing to Catchings’ Tennessee team), and represented Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Phillips, who won the silver medal for Australia in Beijing, was cut from the Olympic team this year.
January, who played for the Sun Devils from 2005-09 and led them to two Regional Finals, joined Catchings on the WNBA All-Defensive Team this year after missing the final 24 games of 2011 with an ACL tear.
“We said it day after day, we had to be in attack mode,” January said. “We had to keep pressuring them; we had to make them uncomfortable; and we had to focus on our game. If we did what we needed to do, rebound, attack, play our kind of defense, we were going to make it tough for them.”
January limited Seimone Augustus to 3-of-21 shooting and eight points Sunday, two days after she scored six points in Game Three.
It was a banner year for Moore, Augustus, and Whalen, winning the gold in London with Catchings. For the often-ringed Moore, her season ends on the same court where she lost in the 2011 Final Four, the only other event she has failed to win since her freshman year at Connecticut.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished, and it doesn’t take anything away from how special this group is,” Moore said of the Lynx.
Taj McWilliams-Franklin, the Lynx’s 42-year-old center, played in her 17th career Finals game, moving her into first all-time. Her teammate, Brunson, moved into a tie with Swin Cash, Deanna Nolan and Elaine Powell for second at 16 games.
The Fever became the first Eastern Conference team other than the Detroit Shock to win the title, which was last accomplished in 2008. The Shock now plays in Tulsa in the Western Conference, thus, the Fever is the only current franchise of the six in the East to own a trophy.
http://www.examiner.com/article/tamika-catchings-leads-indiana-fever-to-long-awaited-wnba-championship
NDIANAPOLIS – The final piece of the puzzle in Tamika Catchings’ Hall of Fame career has come into place. She is a WNBA champion.
Catchings scored 25 points and dished eight assists Sunday as her Indiana Fever captured its first-ever WNBA title with an 87-78 victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game Four of the Finals in front of a sellout crowd of over 15,000 that included her college coach Pat Summitt.
The three-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time World champion and NCAA champion was named MVP of the Finals, averaging 22.3 points, six rebounds and 3.5 assists, adding that superlative to her 2011 regular season MVP, 2000 NCAA Player of the Year award, and five Defensive Player of the Year awards.
“This journey has been full of ups and downs,” the 33-year-old Catchings said, “full of trials and tribulations, full of tears and happy faces. But today we stand with happy faces, and I like that.”
The Fever lost to the Phoenix Mercury in five games in 2009, its only other Finals appearance.
It not only was the first title for Catchings, but for Katie Douglas and Tammy Sutton-Brown, who have also played 12 seasons in the league with multiple All-Star selections.
The defending champion Lynx, who opened the season 10-0 and finished with the league’s best record of 27-7, failed in its attempt at being the first repeat champions since the 2001-02 Los Angeles Sparks.
“It was hard being the hunted,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “There’s a reason this hasn’t been done in over 10 years. I really felt like if there was a team that could do it, it was our team because we have tremendous resolve and great people that are unselfish, and those are really key ingredients.”
Erin Phillips added 18 points, while Shavonte Zellous and Arizona State alumna Briann January both scored 15 for the Fever. Erlana Larkins controlled the boards again for Indiana with 13 rebounds, Lindsay Whalen finished with 22 points and eight assists, and Maya Moore scored 16 for the Lynx.
Phillips scored seven of the Fever’s first 11 points, and Indiana would double up on Minnesota early, 18-9. The Fever was up seven, 25-18, after one.
“We came out with a lot of lot of adrenaline, and I felt the momentum carried over from Friday’s game,” Catchings said. “We came out knowing from a defensive standpoint, we needed to jump on them straight from the beginning, offensively just sharing the ball.”
In the second quarter, the Lynx began closing the gap, with Lindsay Whalen cutting the lead to one midway through. Rebekkah Brunson tied it at 38-38 with 3:30 to go and again at 40-40 two minutes later. Catchings drained two free throws, and Jessica Adair knotted it at 42-42 with a little over a minute left. However, Catchings would hit a three, and January scored to put Indiana up five at the break. Whalen led all with 14 points, and Catchings and Phillips both had 13.
Catchings came out of halftime hot, scoring a three 30 seconds in to put her team up eight, and the lead increased to 10 after her seventh point of the first three minutes. The Lynx would answer with an 8-0 run in the next two minutes, capitalized with a beautiful Maya Moore layup. She tied it at 56-56 with a similar play two and a half minutes later, only to be answered with a dead-on Catchings three. Catchings then picked off Whalen on the other end, and Jessica Davenport made it 61-56 in the post.
A Karima Christmas three put the Fever back up six in the fourth quarter, but Erin Thorn halfened that lead with one of her own on the ensuing Lynx possession. A Shavonte Zellous three from the corner soon put the Fever back up eight with five minutes remaining.
After a timeout with 1:10 left, January found the bottom of the rim on a three again and would sink four free throws with 19.7 and 3.2 seconds to seal the deal. Fever coach Lin Dunn then inserted Katie Douglas at 3.2 to a rousing ovation from the crowd, the only three seconds she would see in the series after suffering a sprained left ankle in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“I just thought Catchings and January and Larkins and Erin Phillips and Z (Shavonte Zellous) were on a mission,” Dunn said, “and I don’t know if Katie being hurt further motivated them or not, but they were just amazing this whole series.”
There were so many players on the Fever roster who had this moment coming to them for a long time.
Douglas is a four-time All-Star and five-time member of the All-Defensive Team after winning the 1999 NCAA title at Purdue.
Toronto native Sutton-Brown played in two All-Star Games, led Rutgers to the 2000 Final Four (losing to Catchings’ Tennessee team), and represented Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Phillips, who won the silver medal for Australia in Beijing, was cut from the Olympic team this year.
January, who played for the Sun Devils from 2005-09 and led them to two Regional Finals, joined Catchings on the WNBA All-Defensive Team this year after missing the final 24 games of 2011 with an ACL tear.
“We said it day after day, we had to be in attack mode,” January said. “We had to keep pressuring them; we had to make them uncomfortable; and we had to focus on our game. If we did what we needed to do, rebound, attack, play our kind of defense, we were going to make it tough for them.”
January limited Seimone Augustus to 3-of-21 shooting and eight points Sunday, two days after she scored six points in Game Three.
It was a banner year for Moore, Augustus, and Whalen, winning the gold in London with Catchings. For the often-ringed Moore, her season ends on the same court where she lost in the 2011 Final Four, the only other event she has failed to win since her freshman year at Connecticut.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished, and it doesn’t take anything away from how special this group is,” Moore said of the Lynx.
Taj McWilliams-Franklin, the Lynx’s 42-year-old center, played in her 17th career Finals game, moving her into first all-time. Her teammate, Brunson, moved into a tie with Swin Cash, Deanna Nolan and Elaine Powell for second at 16 games.
The Fever became the first Eastern Conference team other than the Detroit Shock to win the title, which was last accomplished in 2008. The Shock now plays in Tulsa in the Western Conference, thus, the Fever is the only current franchise of the six in the East to own a trophy.
Index Prime
http://investorshub.advfn.com/Index-Prime-25623/
5-bagger contest on Dawgg.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/%22Dawgg%22-21519/
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
