Lynx loss leaves many speechless

BY MIKE PEDEN

Observers may have had a difficult time telling who was more emotionally distressed between the Minnesota Lynx and their fans Sunday night at Target Center.

Lindsay Whalen was ill and unable to play, while the rest of the team suffered another defensive lapse with WNBA president Donna Orender in attendance, losing 89-51 to the Indiana Fever.

On offense, the Lynx (2-7) were just as anemic, making only 12 of 58 shots for the game with no three-pointers. By the end of the first quarter, Indiana (5-3) had sank 11 field goals.

The shooting woes meant the Fever cruised all night, led by forward Tamika Catchings with 27 points and six rebounds.

Wherever the Fever wanted to score, they usually found good looks. Indiana drained 9 of 16 three-point shots and outscored the Lynx 30-14 in the paint.

Catchings said character and scrambling defensive formations kept the Fever fresh with their third game in four days.

"You can think about being tired, but that's not going to help you," she said. "As a team, everyone was rotating and helping each other."

"We needed to produce energy, even if weren't quite energized ourselves. It just went our way tonight," said Fever guard Tully Bevilaqua

The win was also monumental for Bevilaqua. She only scored six points on two three-point shots, but her baskets put her past the 1,000-point mark as a member of the Fever. Bevilaqua, who joined the team in 2005, became the seventh Fever player to reach 1,000.

Bevilaqua, a native of Australia, considered her achievement an indicator of her country's progress with women's basketball.

"We've come a long way with such a small population," she said. "We're current world champions, we're up there with the U.S. fighting every single year for the gold medal. The rest of world will definitely look to Austrailia in terms of recruiting."

The Fever have also come a long way since dropping their first two games of the season as last year's Eastern Conference champions have won five of their last six games.

"As teammates, we have the confidence that you can knock down shots. Being able to play together offensively and defensively has been the key for us," Catchings said.

Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson, who increased her double-double streak to three games with 10 points and 11 rebounds, was one of just two Lynx players to break double-digits in scoring. Candice Wiggins was the other with 11 points.

Frustrations were building as a team with high preseason expectations find themselves struggling to gel after the first quarter of the regular season.

"We are a bad basketball team," said Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. "I have not been able to get them to understand defensively what we need to get done and clearly our offense is one of the worst in the league. It starts at the top. I will take the blame."