Mercury vs. Sky: Jovana Nogic Scores 27 as Phoenix Blows a 17-Point Lead and Still Wins 91-83

Seventeen points feels like plenty until Rickea Jackson starts taking it personally. The Phoenix Mercury were up 54-37 midway through the third quarter on Friday night, the crowd of 11,094 at Mortgage Matchup Center had settled in, and the rest of the evening looked like a formality. By the 3:49 mark of the fourth, Chicago was ahead 80-79 and nobody in the building was sitting comfortably anymore.

Then Alyssa Thomas grabbed the wheel. Phoenix closed on a 12-3 run, Jovana Nogic finished with 27 points, and the Mercury walked out with a 91-83 win that handed the Sky their first loss of the season. It also gave coach Nate Tibbetts a victory on his 49th birthday, though the second half probably aged him a few extra years.

A Lead With a Slow Leak

Nothing in this game stayed still for long. Phoenix was rolling 23-9 late in the first quarter when Chicago rattled off 11 straight to make it 23-20 early in the second. The teams were level at 28 before the Mercury answered with an 11-0 burst of their own. A technical on Sky coach Tyler Marsh then sent Nogic to the line for the free throw that made it 45-30, and Chicago had to settle for 45-35 at the break.

A 9-0 run early in the third looked like the knockout, and it produced that 54-37 high-water mark with 6:28 left in the period. It was not the knockout. An 8-0 spurt late in the quarter got the Sky back to 69-59 going to the fourth, and then they ripped off 12 in a row in about two and a half minutes. Jackson's 3-pointer capped it for a 75-73 edge with 5:49 remaining, the first time all night Chicago had been in front.

From there it became a coin flip with fouls. Nogic's bucket made it 79-75, Jackson came right back with a 25-footer and an 8-footer, and suddenly a game Phoenix led for 91 percent of the night was up for grabs.

The Rookie, the Closer and the Forward Who Almost Stole It

Nogic, a 28-year-old rookie from Serbia, shot 6 of 11, hit five of her eight 3s and went 10 of 11 at the stripe in 31 minutes. The Mercury say no undrafted rookie in WNBA history had ever scored more in a game than those 27. She now has 64 points through four games, third-most by any rookie in Mercury history behind Diana Taurasi (83) and Cappie Pondexter (85). The team also notes that among players with at least 50 points through their first four games of a season, only Ariel Atkins in 2020 has a better true shooting percentage than Nogic's 80.4.

"For a shooter, that means everything," Nogic said of the green light Phoenix has given her. You would keep it green too.

Thomas was the other half of the story and the scarier half if you drew the assignment. She put up 17 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, went a perfect 7 of 7 at the line and, per the team, scored nine of her points in the fourth while missing only once. Kahleah Copper, meanwhile, went 3 of 16 from the floor and still scored 17 because she was 10 of 10 from the line. That is a very specific way to have a terrible shooting night and a useful basketball night at the same time.

Jackson deserved a better ending. She scored 29 on 10-of-22 shooting with six rebounds and three blocks, and the Sky's recap credits her with 23 after halftime and 13 in the fourth. Rookie Gabriela Jaquez added 13 on 4-of-5 shooting, and Aicha Coulibaly, playing on a developmental contract, scored the first WNBA points of her career on her way to eight. Chicago needed all of it. Skylar Diggins, who arrived averaging 18, went scoreless in 12 minutes before an eye injury ended her night in the second quarter, and the team listed Courtney Vandersloot, Azura Stevens, DiJonai Carrington and Maddy Westbeld among those out.

Three Minutes of Alyssa Thomas

The game turned the moment Chicago took its last lead. Thomas converted a three-point play at 3:03 to make it 82-80. Kamilla Cardoso tied it at the line, Natasha Mack tipped one in for 84-82, and Jackson split a pair to pull the Sky within a point with 2:09 to go.

Chicago never scored again. Thomas dropped in a 7-footer at 1:41 and a layup at 1:07 for an 88-83 cushion, then Nogic and Copper finished the job from the line. Tibbetts pointed to the other end of the floor. "I think we finished with three or four straight stops to finish the game," he said. As for his closer: "She's the ultimate winner and she loves those moments."

Stats That Matter

• 37 of 41: Phoenix at the foul line, against 19 of 26 for Chicago. Those 37 makes rank second in Mercury history, the team says, and no WNBA team had made more in nearly a decade.
• 29 to 24: Made field goals, in Chicago's favor. The Sky hit five more shots and still lost by eight, which tells you how much of this game happened with the clock stopped.
• 40-27: The Mercury's rebounding margin, including 10 offensive boards.
• 19: Points Chicago scored off 15 Phoenix turnovers, compared with 15 the Mercury scored off 13 Sky giveaways. Chicago won that column too. It did not matter.
• 30: Fouls on the Sky, with Jacy Sheldon and Natasha Cloud each finishing on five.

Where Everybody Stands

Phoenix is 2-2 overall and 1-1 at home. The win snapped a two-game slide that included Tuesday's home loss to Minnesota, and it comes before a third straight home date, against Toronto on Tuesday.

Chicago drops to 2-1, with all three games on the road. The Sky finish their season-opening, four-game trip at Minnesota on Sunday with a shot at going 3-1, and the first thing to watch is who is actually healthy enough to suit up alongside Jackson.

Happy Birthday, Coach

This was not a clean win. Phoenix shot 39 percent, lost the fourth quarter 24-22 and let a 17-point lead evaporate in front of its own fans. But a team still figuring itself out can do a lot worse than a rookie shooting like this and a star closing like that. Nogic keeps boiling the whole thing down to the same sentence: "Just letting the game come to me and having fun." Sure. Somebody should ask Tibbetts how much fun he was having at the 3:49 mark.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press. Quotes and team notes from the Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky team recaps.