• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Fever-Sky Preview

Jul 5, 2010 - 7:42 PM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Indiana (9-6) at Chicago (8-9), 8:00 p.m. EDT

The only blemish for the Chicago Sky over the past two weeks is a home loss to the Indiana Fever.

Another impressive scoring performance from Sylvia Fowles could help the Sky avenge that defeat when they welcome the Fever back to Allstate Arena on Tuesday night.

Chicago has won four of five to move out of last place in the Eastern Conference and only a 70-64 defeat to Indiana on June 27 kept the Sky from topping the longest win streak in team history, a four-game run May 27-June 5.

The Sky (8-9) have followed that loss with back-to-back wins behind Fowles.

The 6-foot-6 center has averaged 24.0 points in those contests after being held to 11 by the Fever. She's averaged 13.3 rebounds in the past three contests after previously pulling down 8.0 per game.

Fowles has climbed to fifth in the league with an 18.9 scoring average and is sixth at 8.9 rebounds per game.

Her physical presence, along with 22 points and 12 boards, helped Chicago survive a rough game with East-leading Atlanta on Saturday. Chicago starting forward Mistie Bass suffered a possible broken nose during the 88-82 win that featured a combined 58 fouls and 81 free-throw attempts.

"Anytime you have two teams that really want to win, you are going to have physical contact," coach Steven Key said.

The Sky and Fever had a more tame affair at the end of last month, and Indiana (9-6) earned its third win over Chicago this season thanks in part to its 10 3-pointers. The league's best defensive team also held the Sky to 33 percent shooting to offset a 39-percent showing at the other end.

Ebony Hoffman led Indiana with 13 points, but that victory is the only one during her team's four-game road trip, which concludes Tuesday.

The Fever, who had won eight of 10 heading into the trek, are coming off a 68-65 loss to Washington last Tuesday and giving up second-chance points proved an issue again.

Indiana allowed 16 of them to the Mystics and have given up a combined 47 in the past three games, including 15 to Chicago. Opponents have grabbed 29 more rebounds over that span with the Sky posting a 37-27 edge in the previous matchup.

"We're not finishing the job with the box-out and not being physical and aggressive," coach Lin Dunn told the team's official website.

Dunn's team is trying to win three straight in Chicago for the first time and improve to 7-3 all-time there.

Indiana leads the series 14-4.