INDIANAPOLIS — With the Indiana Fever up 15 points at the 6-minute mark of the fourth quarter, coach Stephanie White wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to experience deja vu for the fifth straight game.
For the past four games, the Fever have built up double-digit leads in the second half, then lost them to the point their opponent took the lead at a point in the fourth. Luckily for the Fever, they had come back to win three of those games. But it still made what could’ve been an easy win into a nailbiter.
And White wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to happen again.
So, after a small stretch that included a Kelsey Mitchell turnover turning into a layup from the Tempo’s Kia Nurse, a Caitlin Clark layup, then Toronto’s Laura Juskaite drawing a foul plus the basket on Clark, White called a timeout to nip it in the bud early.
“This is where we have to grow, we have to understand that every possession matters,” White said. “I think there was a couple, and I think it was early in the fourth, and I called timeout, and I was just addressing it like, ‘We’re not going to do this, OK?’ Every possession matters, offensively, defensively, we can’t get lax, this is what it’s going to take for us to really do the things that we want to do.”
Buy 2026 Indiana Fever tickets!
That gave the Fever the fire they needed to finish out the game. They ended up leading by as many as 24 with two minutes left, and that allowed White to both rest her starters and nearly empty her bench at the end of a 113-91 win.
More importantly, it shows the Fever are starting to learn how to maintain these leads — especially against teams that are of equal or lesser caliber than them. Indiana (9-5) ended up in nailbiters against Washington (5-7) and Connecticut (2-13), along with needing overtime to win over Chicago (4-9), because of their inability to keep those double-digit leads.
Maintaining a lead against Toronto (7-8), a mid-tier team that was down to eight active players because of two injuries coming into the game and two during the game, will start to give the Fever the confidence they need.
Indiana kept up its intensity, something White had said she thought they were lacking in leads during that four-game stretch, in order to keep this lead Tuesday night.
“I think it’s about learning from your mistakes, that’s the best way to put it,” Mitchell, who led the team with 27 points, said. “You get experience. You know what it’s like to lose those leads. We take pride in doing our job, and making sure things are minimized, and the margin for error is small for us, so we want to make sure we get on things early. I think the difference is just making sure that you watch the film, you appreciate some of the mistakes we made as a group, then try to flip the script.”
That intensity stayed high after some early mistakes, too.
Indiana started 5 of 13 in the paint, missing some easy shots and allowing Toronto to keep pace throughout the first half. The Fever even led by as many as 11 in the second quarter, but they allowed the Tempo to come back and take the lead.
But they found new life in the second half, amping up their defense and limiting their turnovers (11 in the first half, five in the second). It all led to one of their most complete victories of the season.
“We were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot, and honestly, we’ve kind of been doing that all year,” Sophie Cunningham, who had 24 points and six 3-pointers off the bench, said. “But I think everyone’s starting to see our growth. We came out in the second half, and we played great defense. We valued the ball a little bit more, and you saw the ball was popping, and everyone was getting their hands on it. I’m just proud of us, and we finally put the pedal to the metal a little bit.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How the Indiana Fever managed to ‘flip the script’ in win over Toronto Tempo
Reporting by Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
