Playing in front of their home crowd for the first time since September, Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky wanted to erase the sting of a season-opening loss when they faced the New York Liberty on Thursday night.
The reigning WNBA champions had other plans.
The Liberty dominated from opening tipoff to the final buzzer, hitting a WNBA regular-season record 19 3-pointers in a 99-74 rout and spoiling the Wintrust Arena debut of rookie Sky coach Tyler Marsh.
“New York imposed their will on us a little bit and took us our of our rhythm,” Marsh said. “That’s a good team (and) you can’t afford to self-inflict wounds.”
Reese struggled in the loss, adding to a tumultuous first week of her season. She finished with a career-low two points, shooting 0-for-8 from the field — failing to make at least one basket for the first time as a pro — and 2-for-6 from the free-throw line. Her previous low was six points last May against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Reese also committed five of the Sky’s 23 turnovers, though she did contribute 12 rebounds and three steals.
The performance came on the heels of the Sky’s 93-58 road loss to the Indiana Fever on Saturday in the opener, a game that turned chippy in the third quarter when Reese grabbed an offensive rebound and Fever star Caitlin Clark slapped Reese’s arm hard enough to jar the ball loose and knock Reese to the court.
When Reese got up, she tried to confront Clark before Fever center Aliyah Boston stepped in between the two players. Clark’s third personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 while Boston and Reese each drew technical fouls following a replay review by the referees.
Both players downplayed the skirmish after the game. But on Sunday, the WNBA opened an investigation into racial comments directed toward Reese by fans in Indianapolis. She expressed gratitude for the league’s call to action and support from her team.
“There’s no place in the league for that,” Reese said Tuesday during a media availability. “The WNBA and our team and our organization has done a great job supporting me.
“I’ve gone through so many different things in the past couple of years in my life, but having the support and this love, and being a part of an organization that really supports me and loves me is something I just couldn’t imagine not being a part of.”
Photos: Chicago Sky lose to New York Liberty 99-74 in home opener
Reese will not have to worry about a lack of support. Dozens of Sky fans wore her No. 5 jersey in the stands Thursday, describing the franchise star with words such as determined, resilient, focused, confident and strong.
“I love Angel, I love her,” said Anita Halsey, a self-proclaimed Reese superfan. “(I have) T-shirts and a signature when she signed in here last year. That’s my girl.”
And Sky fans pregame showed their optimism despite the opening loss.
“The Sky are my team,” said Vada Woods, sitting in Section 125. “I’ve been a season ticket holder since day one, and I’m looking forward to this season very much.”
Still, it’s going to take time for Reese and the team’s offseason additions to jell in Marsh’s new system.
Marsh said he wants his team’s shots to be spread across the floor. Against the Fever, the Sky put up 27 3-pointers, intending to open the post for Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. But they shot just 29.1% overall and 22.2% from 3-point range in the blowout loss.
The Sky’s shooting improved somewhat Thursday night — they were 25-for-69 (36.2%) overall and 11-for-27 (40.7%) on 3s. But they opted for most of the first half to go at the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones down low, to no avail.
Their struggles in the paint drew groans from the crowd after every missed layup. This slowed the Sky offense, leading to fast-break opportunities for the Liberty.
“Offensively we haven’t been in our groove yet,” said point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who rejoined the Sky after helping the Liberty win the title last year. “It comes with time. We have to work on our chemistry offensively and get things moving.”
Trailing 53-32 at the half after the Liberty closed the second quarter with a 17-2 run, the Sky showed flashes of what they can be in the third. An opening 8-0 run chopped the Liberty’s lead to 13, but a Reese technical foul halted any hope for a comeback.
Rachel Banham led the Sky with 15 points, part of a bench unit that outscored the starters 41-33. Vandersloot added 14 points and Rebecca Allen 11.
Natasha Cloud and Kennedy Burke each hit four 3-pointers and scored 18 and 17 points, respectively, to lead five Liberty players in double digits. The Liberty (2-0) shot 55% overall and made 16 of 17 free throws.
The visitors came in as the better team and showed the Sky they have work to do to compete at championship level.
“Three weeks and two games together, it’s tough to be a championship caliber team,” Marsh said. “It’s always been about creating those standards. … It’s something that we’ll build toward. I talk all the time to our team about not playing to a score, but playing to a standard of who we want to be. We want to play consistent Sky basketball for 40 minutes.”
The Associated Press contributed.