Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Sky forward grabbed 8 rebounds in Thursday’s Sky-Mercury game, setting a new franchise record for most offensive boards in a rookie season.
Angel Reese set another rebounding record in Thursday night’s Sky loss to the Mercury, but she once again made clear postgame that setting records is not a priority. Reese has now grabbed 120 offensive rebounds this season, surpassing Sylvia Fowles for the most offensive rebounds in a single-season in franchise history.
But, when asked about the record in her postgame press conference, Reese deflected a question, stating: “I don’t want to hear about no record.”
She finished the game with 11 points (4-14 FG) and 15 rebounds — 8 of those were offensive, which marked the most offensive rebounds in a game by any WNBA player this season. The 15-rebound performance also moved her to 8th on the all-time rookie rebounds list.
Sky head coach Theresa Witherspoon echoed Reese’s indifference postgame.
“She’s all about winning, and she probably didn’t even know that happened until someone said something. I didn’t either,” Witherspoon said. “But, that’s what she’s about. She’s about just winning games, not about breaking records. It’s great for her — it’s great that she’s doing those things, breaking records, doing wonderful things. But, at the end of the day, all we want is to go get wins.”
Over the final 15 games of the WNBA season, Angel Reese is set to break several more rebounding records. She’s currently on pace to grab more boards than any player in WNBA history — rookie or otherwise. That record is also held by Sylvia Fowles, who grabbed 404 boards in the 2018 season. Reese currently has 301 rebounds, and if she continues rebounding at the same clip she has so far this season, she’ll finish the year with 481 rebounds.
But, more important to her is the playoff race. The Sky currently sit at 8th overall in the WNBA standings, in position for the last playoff spot. But, the Dream, Sparks, Mystics, and Wings all sit just a few games behind, and could battle for that final position.
On Thursday, the Mercury defeated the Sky 85-65, and Chicago had no answer for Kahleah Copper (29 points, 12-19 FG) nor Brittney Griner (23 points, 10-12 FG).
Griner had one of her best performances of the season, also posting 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 blocks.
“She’s a great player,” Reese said. “Obviously, she was really efficient tonight. Just being able to follow the game plan was something that we didn’t do tonight. We get another shot at them on Saturday, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Sky were without guard Chennedy Carter, the team’s leading scorer this season. She’s out with illness, and her absence was apparent — with the Sky’s starting backcourt of Rachel Banham and Lindsay Allen combining for just 12 points.
“Chennedy is one of the best guards in this league,” Reese said. “We understand that. We know her value to this team. Being able to not have her tonight, obviously we struggled.”
Next, the Sky will face the Sparks, who also resumed WNBA play with a blowout loss. Angel Reese will continue working toward breaking rebounding records, but her focus will remain on keeping Chicago in the playoff race.
“We got to focus on the next game, which is LA,” Reese said. “They’re also another good team. So, just being able to go into their place and go into their house, and just being able to watch, film and look at the things that we need to work on. We have to follow our game plan, and that’s what we just have to do — look ourselves in the mirror and figure things out. We’ll be back and we’ll be fine.”
