Friday’s contest against the Fever completed the first of two back-to-back sets for the Mercury this season. Phoenix went 2-1 in the second night of a back-to-back last season. Friday’s game also marked the second game of a stretch that will see Phoenix play three games in four days.

Dating back to 2013, the Mercury had won four straight in the series. From 2008 – 2012, the Fever went 8-2 against Phoenix.

The table seemed to turn back in the Fever’s favor on Friday — despite a phenomenal performance from Leilani Mitchell — as Phoenix fell to Indiana 77-74.

“I give credit to our players,” Sandy Brondello said after the game. “They fought hard. We will hang in there and keep getting better as a team. We have got to keep learning and stay together and learn from our mistakes.”

Here’s what we learned:

Leilani Mitchell Was on Fire!

25 points. 8-of-14 shooting. 7-of-10 from downtown.

Leilani Mitchell, literally, shot the Mercury back into the game in the second quarter where she hit four three-pointers in a row after they were previously down by 12 points.

“After last night, we were a bit disappointed,” Mitchell said afterwards. “We tried to push the tempo a bit. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

This is the exact reason the Mercury signed Mitchell in the offseason, and there’s no doubt we’ll see similar games from her in the future.

Defense Fuels the Offense

Once again, the Mercury’s never-give-up style of defense kept them within striking distance.

Phoenix forced 15 turnovers and held the Fever to just 10 points in the third quarter.

Additionally, the gap in rebounding was much better than their game against the Liberty; Indiana still led Phoenix in rebounding but not by much (39-31).

As this Mercury team continues to grow, look for things to start clicking on both ends of the floor very soon.

Candice Dupree Bounces Back

After scoring 12 points against the Liberty less than 24 hours ago, Dupree responded in a big way against the Fever.

CanDu tallied 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go along with five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.

“I definitely think we fought harder tonight than we did last night,” Dupree said. “We are getting better every game.”

The Mercury next host the Lynx on Sunday, June 14 at 12 P.M.