Sparks undone in fourth quarter by Angel Reese, Sky

Angel Reese dominated in the fourth quarter to help the Chicago Sky pick up the win over the Sparks on Sunday.

An 11-point fourth-quarter scoring burst from Chicago’s Angel Reese led to a crushing 92-85 loss for the Sparks on Sunday afternoon.

Dearica Hamby led the way on the day, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds, four dimes and two steals. Azurá Stevens ended with 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Kelsey Plum struggled from the field, finishing with 22 points on 4-16 shooting.

Emma Cannon pitched in with 15 points off the bench. Rickea Jackson struggled with six points on 3-11 shooting.

It was an evenly matched affair to start with the two teams exchanging the lead early. Azurá and Kelsey drained 3-pointers for the Sparks. Angel Reese was shouldering the offensive load for the Sky with four points. With under five minutes left in the quarter, there were only eight points put up for both teams.

Out of a timeout, Azurá knocked down her second 3-pointer. Los Angeles started to put some distance between them and Chicago, going up by five. The Sky scored six straight to take the lead back. LA answered with five straight points to retake the lead by one at the end of the first.

Rachel Banham scored six straight points to give the Sky the momentum and lead early in the second quarter. Los Angeles had the answers, scoring five straight to move back in front and force a Chicago timeout.

Six minutes in, both teams were shooting nearly identically from the field, LA at 40% and the Sky at 41%.

Out of the timeout, Rebecca Allen scored on back-to-back triples for Chicago. Azurá drained her third triple of the half and was the first Spark in double-digits with 11 points.

Former Spark Kia Nurse scored five points to help keep some distance in Chicago’s lead. Unfortunately for Los Angeles, they didn’t end the half well. Despite a deficit-cutting 3-pointer from Shey Peddy, the Sparks found themselves down by six at halftime.

LA started the third strong with Rickea finally scoring on a layup. She had missed seven shots in the first half. Kelsey drained her second triple of the game. Emma Cannon exploded for six points on two 3-pointers to make it a three-point game.

Emma continued to cook, scoring another four points to make it 13 through three quarters, helping give the hosts the lead.

With 59 seconds left until the fourth, Odyssey Simms scored her first points of the game with a floater down the lane. At the end of the third, the purple and gold were nursing a one-point lead.

Reese started the final frame on a heater, scoring six points, all of which were in the paint. Nurse pitched in with five points herself and the Sky found themselves up by six. Emma stopped the 9-0 scoring run for Chicago with a layup. It didn’t matter as the Sky added five more points to their lead.

LA could not stop Reese, who continued to have her way in the paint, scoring five more points as she was up to 11 points in the quarter. A three-point play from Azurá gave the Sparks fans some life, but the team was still down big.

The Sparks missed a few consecutive shots in a row before Azurá converted on a layup to make it a six-point game with 1:00 left. Chicago took a lot of time off the clock, and it led to a heartbreaker 3-pointer from Ariel Atkins to seal the game with just over 30 seconds remaining.

Key Takeaways:

It’s great that Emma continues to be such a spark (pun intended) off the bench for this team. But they’ll need more bench production to create bigger leads and scoring runs.

16 turnovers will not get you a win.

The Sparks’ next game will be Thursday against the New York Liberty at 4:00 PM PT.

You can follow Karin on Twitter at @KarinAbcarians.