Final score: Storm 81 – Sky 69 (W) (4-3)

Submitted by BrrringIt

We took the El and walked to the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavillion. They were handing out Gameday booklets that are the best I've yet seen. They are in color on heavy magazine paper and have pages and pages of information about the players and staff of the Sky. It was Fiesta Night at the UIC Pavillion. Ole! We were given marachas and Sky thundersticks on our way in. No heckling from anyone who saw our jerseys. I mean all night. Even after we pulled ahead for good. Sorry Lynx fans, Chicago Sky fans just bumped you out of first place for "Most Polite Fans in the WNBA." LA and Scramento still own the cellar, for those of you keeping track at home.

UIC Pavillion is smaller than Hec Ed and open all the way out to the concourse. There is no teamshop, just a counter where you can buy a few things like T-shirts. I had managed to talk the ticket rep into selling me courtside seats behind the bench. He said they save those for potential season ticket holders. Look, buddy, unless you suddenly get a hundred season ticket holders who all want to pay courtside prices, just sell the damn things game by game. The section was mostly empty. There were 4 Storm fans in front of us. They said they split their time between Chicago and Seattle and have tickets for both teams.

Anthem: A petite blond gave it the operatic treatment.

We stood up and cheered our heads off for our players during the "humuhnuh" mumbled intros. Sue got cheers from the Chicago crowd in general. A guy and a girl came out on the court to get the crowd going. They were wearing serapes and sombreros in keeping with Fiesta Night. They led the crowd in singing the "Sky Song," which is also printed in the sleek gameday booklet. It made me appreciate our overproduced intros. Then a drumline came out and pounded away for a bit. More about them later. They have no Jumbotron of any kind, just the standard lightbulbs-on-black-background scoreboard. Forget about seeing any replays. Spotted KB a few rows up in the middle section. Izzy was looking our way so I waved at her. She smiled behind her Gatorade cup.

Gametime

Tipoff, and LJ got off to a quick start. We only stood for a few seconds. We could have stood for the whole game, though, since no one was behind us. Sue hit the next one, and the familiar road knot in my stomach started to relax. Not for long. Our shooting went cold and Stacy Dales (whatever happened to that Schuman guy?) started hitting 3s. Part of our problem may have been the drumline guys. They stood in one of the empty corner seating sections and pounded away dissonantly during our possessions. It was loud and unnerving. I can't imagine trying to dribble a ball or find your rhythm with that going on. The little kids with the marachas were pretty annoying, too.

2nd Qtr: 19-12, Sky

During a timeout, they had a little contest where they would play part of a pop song and the contestant would take over and sing the next part. They did "Respect" and "Since You Been Gone". Between the drums, marachas, the gameshow dude announcer and the singing, it was an all-out assault on our eardrums.

We had 3 female refs, which would have been cool, except that two of them were Lisa Mattingly and June Corteau. I didn't recognize the third one. When I was getting frustrated with the game in the second quarter, I resorted to abusing them. "You suck, June!" That sort of thing. I'm not proud of it. I'm just reporting the facts.

Sue was getting frustrated, too. At one point in the second quarter, coming back on the court, she seemed to be really giving her teammates what for. I think it was the turning point. Leadership, baby. It's the reason I wear #10.

Halftime 35-33, Sky

I noticed 3 people in Storm shirts in the section behind us. I went up and asked if they were from Seattle. One man said, "No, we're from Indiana." He gestured to the woman next to him. "We're Katie Gearlds' parents." I told them how happy we were when she was still available at the seventh pick and how she gets big cheers for every shot. They beamed.

KB got a courtside upgrade during half time. We got a smile and wave when she went by.

The crowd-warmer-upper people came back out on the court and talked about keeping up the momentum. I said to Mini, "What are they talking about? The momentum belongs to the Storm!"

And it did. We started the second half strong, fighting for the ball, Betty ending up in the second row at one point. Her shooting was cold the first half, so she tended to pass rather than force a bad shot. I think this shows a new maturity. JB made a shot that finally put us ahead. I told Mini I wished I could write "for good" after that. I should have.

Their dance troupe is like ours only without the hip-thrusts.

Armintie Price is CUT.

Some annoying woman in the section behind us did not like Betty AT ALL. She screamed at her no matter what she did. When she subbed out, this harpie shrieked "SIT DOWN, 22!" It seems to me if you're going to have that kind of hate, at least make it personal by calling them by name.

LJ got in foul trouble in the 3rd and had to sit down. No problem. JB took over. She was an absolute stud on the boards. A-Rob had one of her now-signature blocks and our little corner went wild.

3rd Qtr: 59-50, Storm

Tanisha Wright sub in for Sue and we sat back, hoping to hold on to the lead. (See New Socks' decription on another thread. It goes "dribbledribbledribble...") LJ seemed very frustrated with her, calling for the ball from odd locations on the court just to get it out of T's hands. Then came a very telling moment. T was dribbledribbledribbling near the bench and AD was standing about 10 feet from her, shouting instructions and pointing down court. When she turned on her heel to go sit back down, T screamed, "WHAT?" her face a mask of confusion and frustration. It was a painful moment to watch, but it distilled down for me everything wrong with our backup point guard situation. Scowl leaned over and said in a serious voice, "We must never tell anyone what we just saw." I said, "Bullsh!t. I'm putting it in my game report."

There was a nice moment where Katie Gearlds hit her shot from the top of the key and was fouled. She was sitting there on the court, both fists in the air. Yes! Speaking of KG, what to say? She has been building to this all season, gaining confidence, and has a breakout performance like this (5 of 6 field goals, 4 of 5 from the 3, all her free throws, for a total of 17 points) in front of Mom and Dad! They must be so proud.

Instead of the Train, they teach the kids a dance routine out on the court during a timeout. It was very cute.

Sorry SFiCL, the Flop-o-Meter stayed at zero because Kayte Christensen did not play.

The bench did their comedy routine to close out the game. It is bad enough when they do this in front of us at KeyArena, but seeing it on the road, I was embarrassed for them. ARob and KG are the bright spots. Shyra Ely forced a jump ball (hey, I'm trying to notice when she does anything good). Fluker drew a foul and looked all confused at what AD was saying to her. She still looked confused when she got to the line. She bricked her first FT by not even trying. I am sorry to say this, but I am developing an active dislike for her.

Final Score: 81-69

Oh yeah, we met Adia's Aunt Deb on the way out. She was really nice and we chatted about Adia's (too short) career with the Storm.

We are hitting the road soon and will be seeing Tully... I mean will be in Indianapolis this afternoon.

Go Storm!

Page 1 | 2