INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever’s hot streak continues.
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Fueled by four starters scoring double figures, the Fever crushed the Connecticut Sun 67-53 Thursday night before a crowd of 6,468 at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The win — Indiana’s seventh straight — set a new franchise record for consecutive victories.
“I didn’t know that,” Fever coach Lin Dunn said of the new franchise mark. “I don’t keep up with records. The only thing that matters is the first quarter of the next game. We try to win each quarter.”
Less than a month ago, the Fever suffered a 22-point loss to Atlanta that dropped them to 0-2.
Since then, they’ve done nothing but win. Dunn offered a simple reason for the team’s resurgence — improved defense.
“Defend, defend, and defend,” Dunn said. “If you defend, you’re going to have opportunities to score off your defense. Night in and night out, if we can consistently defend, we’ll have a chance to win.”
Tammy Sutton-Brown scored 14 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and blocked five shots to lead Indiana (7-2). Her rebound and block totals each fell one shy of career highs.
“I was really excited about how well Tammy Sutton-Brown played tonight,” Dunn said. “She was running the floor well and posting up. It’s super to see our center establish herself like that against a really good team.”
Lindsay Whalen led the Sun (4-4) with 11 points. Connecticut’s Tamika Whitmore scored eight points and Tan White added six points.
Whitmore and White are both former Fever players.
Indiana shot 46 percent from the field in the first quarter, and used an 11-0 run early in the period to build a 16-5 lead. The Fever led 21-11 after one.
Midway through the second, Whalen drove to the basket for a lay-up that brought Connecticut to within 25-24. But a basket from Sutton-Brown and a three-pointer from Katie Douglas helped Indiana push the lead back to 30-26 at halftime.
“Connecticut is well-coached, very talented, and they’re not going to lay down and die,” Dunn said. “So we expected some runs. What we had to do was counter those runs, and we were able to do that very well tonight.”
Indiana scored 11 straight points to open the third, taking a 48-30 advantage on a driving lay-up from Tamika Catchings with 5:45 to play in the period. The Fever led by double digits the rest of the way.
Indiana hosts the Atlanta Dream (4-6) at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.
The teams last met in the June 6 season opener, when six-time All-Star Chamique Holdsclaw scored 23 points to lead the Dream to an 87-86 double-overtime victory.
“I know our defense is better know than it was opening night,” Dunn said. “But they’re a very good team. They’ve got a lot of weapons that are as good as or better than any team in the league. We’ve got to be ready for another big game.”
kevin.leibrock@flyergroup.com
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