I love basketball. I. Love. Basketball. All forms of it: Pro, College, Men's, Women's. I love it all. So what is a boy to do when it's summertime in the Windy City? Go catch a Chicago Sky WNBA game. However, due to being busy at some times and broke at others, I was never able to make the trek up to Rosemont (or to the UIC Pavilion when they played there).
Well, all of that changed yesterday.
Someone from my church happened to have a bunch of free Sky tickets left over for Friday night's game against Connecticut, so I figured I'd pick up two; one for my mother and one for myself.
Instead, the guy just gave me the remaining six he had.
So I start cold-calling friends to see if they are interested in coming to the game, but everyone I talked to was busy, and I didn't get any interested parties when I solicited the four free tickets on my personal Twitter.
Welp, looks like it's just a party of two.
So we head up to Rosemont, taking the Tri-State Tollway since going the Dan Ryan/Kennedy was a no-go (According to Google Maps, it would've taken two hours to get from my house to the Allstate Arena going that way). It only took a little under an hour going this way, only because there was some congestion around Roosevelt because of gapers looking at a car that rear-ended another in the right lane.
We get to the arena just in time for the opening tip. More specifically, they were just getting done honoring Sylvia Fowles and Swin Cash as they prepare to join the US Olympic Team. This is my first time actually being inside of Allstate Arena. I've only seen it through DePaul and Rush and Sky games I see on TV. On TV, it doesn't look all that impressive. But in person, the place looks kind of cool. I always get giddy when I go to major sports arena. Between the live atmosphere, the numerous banners in the rafters (Wolves, DePaul, and Rush banners. There were even banners up in the rafters for the 16 teams in the Big East), the low, wooden (?) ceiling, and the sheer size of this 17,500 building, I really found Allstate Arena to be a cool place.
So after the Olympic presentation, they meet at center court and tip-off
The Sky get off to a hot start, opening the game on a 13-2 run, including a 9-0 start. This can be credited to Ruth Riley essentially being all over the place as well as the hot shooting of Tamera Young.
However, as I almost expected, Connecticut found their way back into it, mostly on the back of Tina Charles. The Sky may have gotten off to a hot start, but I was seeing too many errant passes and a couple airballs to have me believe the lead would stick. So, after one quarter, the Sky were only up 15-13.
The second quarter was the quarter that made me hate Courtney Vandersloot. From my view in Section 105, I got a Russell Westbrook kind of vibe from her: looking to score first, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It seemed to be a bad thing, because the offense looked stagnant, and she was just chucking up a shot whenever she thought she had it. However, when I checked my Center Court app to see how much harm she was inflicting on the team's offense, I saw that she was 5-9 at the moment, and looking at the play-by-play as I write this I see she was 4-8 in the second quarter, so she really wasn't all that bad.
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| Allstate Arena's neat center scoreboard. I wonder when they got this. |
Plus, by the half, the Sky were still up, 35-26. As bad as she looked to me, Vandersloot had led the way for Chicago, and the Sun shooters were ice cold. Tina Charles had 13 for Connecticut, but everyone else was 5-26.
In the third quarter, Connecticut came out of the locker room, full steam ahead, as they pulled to within three with 5:46 left (41-38). However, the Sky finished the quarter on a 12-2 run to make it 53-40.
Then came the fourth quarter. Renee Montgomery got hot for Connecticut (10 points in the quarter), with help from Mistie Mims (9). With 1:56 left, the Sun managed to get within two; 66-64.
In the two-minute drill, the Sky couldn't take advantage of opportunities. After a Tamera Young miss with 1:35 left, Connecticut had the ball. Kara Lawson misses a jumper, and a scramble between Vandersloot and Danielle McCray leads to a jump ball. There was a size disadvantage (McCray had three inches on her), but the Sky still had a chance to corral the tip. However, all that was moot when Sonja Petrovic was called for a violation on the tip, and the Sun got the ball automatically. Ugh.
Okay, so all's not lost, the Sky just have to make a defensive stand, which they had done numerous times throughout the game. And they did, as they forced Montgomery to turn the ball over. There seemed to be hope that the Sky could hold off the big, bad Connecticut Sun. Until Mistie Mims stole the ball from Fowles with 45 seconds left.
So now, the Sun have another chance to tie or take the lead. But the Sky are playing tough D once again. So much so, that they are able to run the shot clock down to two seconds. Kara Lawson had the ball at this moment, and had no choice but to throw up a shot. Fortunately, the shot was off. Unfortunately, Vandersloot bailed her out with a foul. Grrrrr. Lawson makes both free throws, so with 24.5 seconds left the game is tied at 66.
Okay, I figure, the Sky can just hold the ball and get a shot off near the final buzzer. And that seems to be there plan. They get the clock all the way down to 2.9 when Vandersloot makes a bad pass that ends up in the hands of Allison Hightower. Doom looks certain, and Hightower charges downcourt for what seems to be the game-winning lay-up. However, there just enough time left that Allison couldn't make it all the way to the basket, and instead was forced to throw up a floater, which she misses.
So after the Sky found themselves up by as much as 13, and had lead the entire game, it was overtime in Rosemont.
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| An announced crowd of 5,988. Pretty good turnout IMO |
Overtime was pretty close. Allison Hightower hit a lay-up to make it 79-78, Sun, with 8.9 left. Coming out of a timeout, Chicago had time to set up a play and take the lead back. However, Sonja Petrovic traveled, and Connecticut got the ball with 5.2 left. Kara Lawson hit 1 of her 2 free throws, making it 80-78. The Sky had one last chance to tie or win, by Shay Murphy missed a three at the buzzer.
Welp, the Sky lose.
Coming out of the game, I was sort of miffed at the loss, but all-in-all, I had fun. The crowd was loud, the music was loud (almost to a fault. One, sometimes the music was so loud that coming out of timeouts I couldn't here the whistle from on court and, two, the music just wouldn't stop. There were only select moments where they was sileence). It was a vibrant atmosphere, with is great for a league like the WNBA that is looking to attract more fans.
On the way I saw a poster congratulating Swin Cash and Sylvia Fowles on being on the Olympic Team and wishing them luck...
...and as I was heading to the car in the parking lot, I decided to take a picture of the illuminated arena logo sign...
...as soon as I took the picture, a low-flying plane swooped overhead as it was set to land at nearby O'Hare. Scared the dear life out of me. Whose bright idea was it to build a sports arena near an airport anyways?
But at the end of the day, I was glad I had a chance to take in a WNBA game. I hope to catch another one in the near future. Maybe after the Olympic break, maybe next year, who knows? I would also love to check out other area sports teams like the White Sox or Cubs. It may be summer, but there's still a lot of sports in my backyard.
