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CHICAGO NOTES

For the fourth straight game, the Sky scored 90-plus points.
Chicago shot an even 40 percent (12-of-30) from behind the three-point line.
Courtney Vandersloot knocked down 4-of-6 three-point shots. She stuffed the stat sheet with 20 points, six rebounds, five assists, two steals, and one block.
Allie Quigley hit a buzzer beater to put the sky ahead of the Liberty at the half, 45-44. She finished with a team-high 28 points, three assists and two rebounds. She shot 50 percent from behind the arc (5-of-10 and 9-of-17 from the field.
Cheyenne Parker led the bench with 13 points. She also had four rebounds.
Jamierra Faulkner led the team with eight assists.
Stefanie Dolson scored 10 points and grabbed 10 boards to earn her first double-double of the season.
This was the second overtime game Chicago has played in this season. The first overtime game came in Seattle. The Sky are now 0-2 in overtime games.
The Sky held guard Epiphanny Prince to just eight points. Coming into tonight’s contest, she averaged 21.0.

NEW YORK NOTES

Tina Charles’ hook shot with 16 seconds remaining in overtime gave the New York Liberty a lead they wouldn’t relinquish as they beat the Chicago Sky on the road, 97-94. Charles led the Liberty with 28 points, her seventh game this season with at least 20. The forward is averaging 23.7 points per game in three matchups against the Sky this season.
The game marked the second consecutive matchup between these two teams. Chicago came out on top Friday night, 103-99.
New York got off to a strong start against the red-hot Chicago, holding a lead for a majority of the first half.
For the second consecutive game, all 10 Liberty players who saw the court registered a made field goal. Five players finished with at least 10 points.
Kia Vaughn registered a double-double in the contest, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds. The center’s last double-double came against Seattle last season (7/6/17).
Brittany Boyd finished with 14 points, her season-high, along with four rebounds and five assists. Bria Hartley (10 points) and Shavonte Zellous (12 points) also finished in double figures.
New York’s 29 made free throws were one shy of their season-high against Indiana (6/2).
The Liberty racked up 23 assists, their third straight game with at least that many. Their 10 steals marked their second consecutive game in double digits.
The contest marked the Liberty’s second overtime game (and victory) of the season. They needed extra time to beat the Fever earlier this season (6/2). The victory snapped a five-game losing streak for the Liberty.

POSTGAME QUOTES

SKY GENERAL MANAGER & HEAD COACH AMBER STOCKS

On the emotional back-and-forth game:
“It’s difficult. We’re all competitive, we’re all here and focused on one thing, and that’s winning games. It’s difficult emotionally, these guys are out here busting it, laying it all out on the line – emotionally, physically, and mentally. It takes a toll on all three to not come out with a win.”

On the defense and handling Tina Charles:
“Our fouls, we fouled way too many times. When you foul, it’s a double-whammy because you are getting key players for your team off of the court because they’re in foul trouble. You’re putting the opponents closer to the bonus, getting free shots at the free throw line and then of course the act of fouling in that possession, which allows them to reset, put more time on the clock and have a second look on offense. The key was our fouls.”

On drawing up plays:
“We have offensive sets that have multiple options. We have a lot of extremely versatile and talented players, so we don’t have to draw plays with single looks. We try to run plays that have multiple looks within them. And so, I have a lot of confidence in Sloot [Vandersloot] taking any shot that she feels comfortable taking, Q [Quigley], and any other players on the court.”

On any new pressure to win road games:
“Well when it comes to tiebreakers, each opponent is handled individually and our series with Dallas starts Tuesday. In two days we start a three-game series with Dallas and we continue a three-game series with Vegas after that. We’re one up on Vegas, we need to secure a win and then we need to get off to a great start with Dallas to win that series.”

SKY GUARD COURTNEY VANDERSLOOT

On being up and then having the game stolen from them:
“Yeah, it’s hard. It hurts having one that you felt like you kind of gave away, but this stretch is so important for us because we have a game in two days, so we’ve got to learn from what happened late and what happened early in the game to put us in this position. You know, we were down six with a minute and a half or something, so it was like stuff was happening before these final plays, but you know, learn from it and we’ve got to bounce back because we’ve got a lot of games this week, important games. This happens in this league. Teams are good; players are great. They’re going to make incredible plays like Allie did to keep us in the game. You know, just learn from it and bounce back.”

SKY GUARD ALLIE QUIGLEY

On a sense of panic in overtime:
“Maybe a little bit. Whenever you start overtime you want to start strong, you want to start scoring and getting stops. I just think they got it down low a little too easy, and we fouled. Three [plays] in a row of them getting easy baskets at the rim and us not scoring. I feel like we need more of an urgency, even if you win three, you have to still improve and I don’t think we improved at all tonight.

On scoring towards the end of regulation:
“Just that we’ve got to score. That’s all I was thinking. We were down, so anything to get us back in the game.”

On staying focused in such a close game:
“Just stay in the moment and focus on whatever play is happening, whether it’s a free throw or defense or [an] offensive possession.”

LIBERTY HEAD COACH KATIE SMITH

On what the team brought in overtime:
“We fought, we got up a little bit, gave up a couple buckets, but give them credit. I mean Quigley was just, she is something else. I knew when she was drafted and brought into Seattle as a player we played together one of my favorites, but they hit unreal shots. We made shots, we found Tina. We got stops when we needed too and rebounds. I’m just really proud and happy for our team to get this win because we’ve been battling the last few games and right at the end. To get this one feels good.”

On Tina Charles’ performance:
“We need to play inside out. We have a lot of good guards but she’s definitely a presence. But when she didn’t have many shots but when she touches it, she draws such a crowd. She’s a willing passer, which also helps us. She’s a main focal point of our team and we constantly want to have her at least touch the ball and it creates opportunities for others.”

On Charles’ first quarter to second quarter shooting:
“We gotta mix it in, and she did hit one or two and she can do that, but again it’s like after that one or two lets get yourself right back on that block again it’s not only getting up the courage for herself, but it opens up a lot of things for everybody else. Cuts, and other shooters get opportunities. Again its for her to be versatile like she is. It’s helpful, because it’s helpful because it doesn’t necessarily get you stuck in one area and they gotta play us all over the floor”

On the vets keeping up with rookies:
“It feels good, we’re not old by too many standards. They’re kinda in their prime and also the stretch we’ve had. We’ve had a back to back, play here, and play again on Tuesday. But again this is what they do. They get in a routine just like all these teams, all of us. We end up being like alright get ready for games. You’re not in practice mode, you’d rather play games. They take care of their bodies, they’re professionals, they’ll have a day off tomorrow and will get back after it on Tuesday.”

On veteran lineup and a rookie like Kia Nurse coming off the bench:
“It’s nice because she plays hard she gives you that boost of energy, takes good shots, flying around, plays d, rebound. She Basically just does whatevers needed. But it is nice to have Zellous and Z [Zahui B] and even Hartley and then Boyd comes in and honestly this is really her first, knock on wood, her first full year so again she’s really blossoming and really finding her niche. Just proud of everybody, because we need them all because every single game it may be someone else’s night we need them all locked in and engaged and leaving an impact wherever it may be.”

On tie-breaker points:
“We got one more. We can even it up, 2 and 2. We love to win as many series as we can. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, but we’d love to find a way to make a little bit of a run here before the All Star break. I know we’re a couple games out of last place, just gotta get ourselves in the playoffs and I feel like we have the capability to do that, we gotta show up every night. It’s tough, this league is tough to win games, but it’s fun because you’re literally playing against the best every night. We wanna see what we can do I thought we played really well for two games. Finally getting a win was nice, but we’re gonna have to lace ‘em back up on Tuesday.”

On the key to making playoffs:
“For us it’s locking it in on the defensive end. Keeping people in front, rebound the basketball, communicating. And on the offensive end, again it’s people making shots, getting Tina obviously involved, everyone being a threat. Figuring out how people are playing us, but the defense needs to be our staple and keeping people in front of us.”

LIBERTY CENTER KIA VAUGHN

On the meaningful win:
“We are trying to get momentum and get a few games under our belt. It’s been tough, real, real tough. It just means a lot because we keep fighting, we keep fighting a lot.”

On the team’s mindset going into overtime:
“Just trying to stay focused on what we’ve done that was good before we got into overtime. Just trying to stay aggressive you know, because during that time you’re like “C’mon let it be over.” But we have to continue to fight.”

On coach’s message during overtime:
“Push the ball defensively and defense, defense, defense. They got some tough shooters, so obviously we got to step up. If we needed to switch, talkin’ it out, and keeping it going.”

LIBERTY FORWARD TINA CHARLES

On her performance in today’s game:
“You get high-percentage shots when you’re closer to the basket. All my shots were post moves. I think any outside shots were three-point attempts. (I) try not to fade away too much, try to just go up into them and that’s the end result.

On what the win means for the team:
“It means everything. I think we were on a 4 or 5 game losing streak. This is really a great confidence booster for us. We have always been so close when it came to winning other games that we’ve lost, so this is a big confidence booster for us. This is basically like a playoff series. And I think we came in with that mindset wanting to get this win. Katie made it aware to us that the series against them was 0-2 and so we wanted to try and tie the series and this is a great step towards that.”

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