Kizer scores 16 and Fever rally with dominant fourth quarter to beat Stars 75-68

SAN ANTONIO – Indiana knew the San Antonio Stars were already weary, so the Fever did everything they could to further wear down a team playing the second night of a back-to-back.

Reserve forward Lynetta Kizer scored 16 points and Indiana's bench dominated the fourth quarter in rallying for a 75-68 victory over San Antonio on Saturday night.

After falling 88-78 at Minnesota on Friday night, the Stars did not arrive in San Antonio until 2 p.m. Saturday for a 7 p.m. tipoff. San Antonio coach refused to comment on the schedule, but Indiana was clearly aware of its opponents' fatigue.

"We got a lot of help from our bench," Fever coach Lin Dunn said. "We wanted to try to stay as fresh as we could against them since they were on a back-to-back and keep the tempo up, keep pushing the ball. I thought it paid off for us the last five minutes. I thought our fresh people our bench was able to score and defend at a high level and then I thought it bothered them that we were a little fresher than they were."

Indiana's bench scored all but two of its 24 points in the fourth quarter, with Shavonte Zellous' 18-foot jumper with 1:18 remaining the lone goal by a starter.

Zellous added 14 points and reserve forward Natasha Howard had 11 for Indiana (12-13), which tied Washington for second place in the Eastern Conference.

With All-Stars Tamika Catchings and Briann January combining to shoot 0 for 14, the Fever's bench outscored the Stars' reserves 45-14.

"That's something we want to stay focused on," Kizer said. "Coach said that we're only going to go as far as the bench takes us, and that's something that we want to keep doing. Just keep working hard and having faith in each other."

Becky Hammon scored 18 points and Danielle Robinson added 15 for San Antonio (12-14), which dropped to 5-7 at home.

In her first home game since announcing she will retire after this season, Hammon showed flashes of former All-Star form. She drove and double-pumped at her hip, spinning the ball off the glass for a layup that pulled the Stars within 55-52 with 8 minutes remaining. She later drained a 3-pointer and drove in for a layup that pulled San Antonio within 74-68 in the final minute, but it wasn't enough against an Indiana team that had not played since Tuesday.

"Well, we got to spend like 30 minutes at home, to get a shower in and stuff like that," Stars forward Sophia Malcolm-Young said. "We knew our season was going to be like that. Everybody's going through it, so we can't really use it as an excuse."

The Fever dominated the paint in the fourth quarter, with Howard and Kizer forcing their way inside for short jumpers and layups. The duo combined for 16 points in the quarter.

"I try to find open space and just the run floor and get rebounds and play good defense," Howard said. "That's my role and that's what I did tonight."

Indiana's dominance came after San Antonio had their way inside early.

Danielle Adams bullied past Tamika Catchings for back-to-back baskets, including a follow of her own miss to give the Stars a 24-16 lead.

"I'd say about the first four or five minutes, I'm not sure that we realized that the game had actually started," Dunn said. "We were a little lethargic, and they were very aggressive."