Sky beat – After a five-game losing streak and months of talk about fixing offense, defense, and rebounding, the Sky finally delivered a win in front of their home fans, beating the Sun 85-80 on Friday night.
For five straight games, the Sky had been saying the same things—out loud in meetings, through film sessions, and during practice—like if they could name the problem precisely enough, it would stop showing up on the court.
They knew the shots weren’t falling from deep, with their 25.7% mark still last in the league. They knew defense was too often undone by fouls that spoiled otherwise solid possessions in the final three seconds of the shot clock. They even knew what they were giving away on the boards, surrendering rebounds after playing good defense for 29 seconds.
On Thursday, guard Rachel Banham put it plainly after practice: “We’ve got to start playing more desperate.” She added that the Sky hadn’t won yet in front of their fans, and that was something they needed to fix.
Friday night, they did.
The Sky beat the Sun 85-80, snapping the skid and getting the kind of night their earlier conversations had been trying to produce. Skylar Diggins led the team with 24 points. Natasha Cloud and Elizabeth Williams chipped in 13 and 10 points off the bench, respectively.
“We had five players in double figures,” Diggins said after the game. “That was a big deal for us, getting to the line, just trying to be aggressive and impose my will.”
Williams, reflecting on what the streak had felt like, said, “We just couldn’t take it anymore, to be honest. You lose that many games in a row, especially at home, something has to flip.”
Of course, a single win doesn’t rewrite a season. The Sky are still 4-6, and beating a bottom-of-the-barrel team has its limits. But the victory carried something sharper than a scoreboard result: it showed fight—the ability to absorb runs without letting them turn into collapses.
In the early part of the season, when the Sky beat three of the league’s top eight teams, they played tough enough to withstand momentum swings. Back then, they weren’t sinking into mistakes, and when things went wrong, they stayed upright. Banham said that’s what they were missing lately.
“When things weren’t going well, we didn’t show it. We still had our heads held high,” Banham said. “We were like, ‘All right, next possession, get it back.’ We haven’t had that the last few weeks.”
She acknowledged the difference that has settled in during the slump—“We’re definitely hanging our heads more”—but pushed back against the idea that they should feel sorry for themselves. “There’s nothing to feel sorry about. Teams are going to go on runs. We need to be able to handle that adversity the way we did in the first four games.”.
Friday night offered three chances to fold—and three chances to respond.
The first came early. when Sun forward Diamond Miller scored 15 points before halftime as Connecticut jumped out to a 14-point lead. It looked like the Sky might buckle. Instead, Diggins took over in a way that turned the game back toward them. She scored, crossed up defenders, finished in the paint, and helped get the crowd involved.
“The game [plan] was for me to play [bleeping] better,” Diggins said.
The second test arrived in the third quarter. After the Sky had built a seven-point lead, they started fouling again, putting the Sun on the line. Connecticut cut the deficit to two. Once more, the Sky didn’t unravel. Cloud answered with a big three-pointer. The Sky kept attacking the paint and getting back to the line.
The fourth quarter was the toughest kind of equation—back-and-forth, with the Sun never fully going away. After a run from Sun center Brittney Griner, Cloud hit another timely three-pointer to put the Sky up 77-72. Diggins then answered with another pair of Sun buckets, capped by an and-one. Williams sealed it with back-to-back post moves.
None of those moments alone was enough to “right the ship.” But in combination, they did what the Sky needed most: they found a step toward their mojo, and they took it when it mattered.
The game came with injury updates. Rookie Gabriela Jaquez missed her fourth consecutive game with a knee injury. Developmental player Aicha Coulibaly was not activated.
WNBA Connecticut Sun Chicago Sky Skylar Diggins Natasha Cloud Elizabeth Williams Rachel Banham Diamond Miller Brittney Griner Gabriela Jaquez Aicha Coulibaly