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Sky-Sun Preview

Jun 18, 2009 - 10:28 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Chicago (3-1) at Connecticut (1-3), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Thanks partly to a favorable schedule to open the season, the Chicago Sky are off to the best start in franchise history.

Keeping it going won't be easy with their next three games away from Chicago.

The Sky, who have a history of struggling on the road, look to set a team record with a fourth consecutive victory when they wrap up a home-and-home series with the Connecticut Sun on Friday night.

Chicago (3-1), which finished with losing records in each of its first three seasons, is above .500 for the first time since June 2007 when the team was 6-5. The Sky are led by an offense that ranks second in the Eastern Conference in scoring (77.0 ppg) and is shooting a league-best 53.5 percent from 3-point range.

In Tuesday's 78-75 victory over the Sun (1-3), Chicago overcame an eight-point, fourth-quarter deficit to win its third in a row, matching a franchise record set in July 2007.

Jia Perkins led the Sky with 25 points, including 11 in the fourth-quarter comeback. She's averaging a team-high 19.8 points.

"She basically put our entire team on our back and brought us through," Chicago coach Steven Key said. "Her teammates rallied around her and got the rebounds for her and got her the ball when necessary. When you have a special one-on-one player like that who can get a shot off and they're going in, it puts a lot of pressure on the other team."

Chicago now faces some pressure with eight of its next 11 on the road, including Saturday's game against unbeaten Washington before ending this trip Tuesday in Atlanta.

The Sky haven't played away from Chicago since losing their season opener at Minnesota, 102-85. They are 14-38 all-time on the road, including 4-13 last season and 1-4 all-time in Connecticut.

While Chicago has gotten off to a fast start, the Sun have stumbled out of the gate.

Connecticut, which opened 8-1 last season en route to the second-best record in the East, has the league's third-lowest scoring offense (68.3) and is shooting a WNBA-worst 36.0 percent from the floor.

The Sun, who shot 29.0 percent in Sunday's 67-62 loss to Atlanta, made 43.9 percent from the floor against Chicago but missed all seven field-goal attempts over the game's final 4:07.

"We missed shots down the stretch, the same shots we were making earlier," said Connecticut forward Asjha Jones, who had 16 points and a team-high six turnovers. "They increased their defensive pressure and got some turnovers. (And) they got offensive rebounds, they got five in the fourth quarter alone ... and they got a lot of their points off that."

The Sun hope to get back on track with their next three games at home.