Aliyah Boston top-scored for Indiana with 14 points and also recorded 12 rebounds for a double-double, but head coach Christie Sides was critical of her side’s performance as a whole.
“I’m going to start with how you can’t, at this level, coach effort,” Sides said in her post-game press conference. “I felt like we were just trying to ask them to keep playing hard, play hard.
“You can’t start there. You can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort. It’s just too hard.”
Sides made sweeping changes in the third quarter, removing a raft of regular starters and not reinstating them. Instead, she put her faith in the reserves to restore some respectability.
Indiana only lost the third quarter by a narrow margin and then won the fourth 16-9 to reduce the final deficit to 17 points.
“We were down 28 and I wanted to put a group in there that would get out and play some defence.” Sides said. “I’m really, really proud of that group that went out there and cut the lead.
“They played hard. We’ve got Atlanta coming up. We’ve got Chicago coming up. Just thinking ahead.”
Indiana welcome Atlanta Dream to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Thursday, while Connecticut travel to take on Chicago Sky on Wednesday.
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