Fowles leads Sky past Sun

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) -- Sylvia Fowles said she doesn't need a lot of motivation in her sixth WNBA season.

"It's personal goals I set for myself," she said. "Every chance I get I want to go out and dominate."

Fowles had 24 points and a career-high 22 rebounds, Elena Delle Donne scored 20 points, and the Chicago Sky beat the Connecticut Sun 86-75 on Friday night.

Epiphanny Prince added 17 points for the Sky (2-0), who trailed only briefly in their home opener.

Allison Hightower matched a career-high with 20 points, reigning league MVP Tina Charles had 16 points and 15 rebounds, and Kara Lawson added 11 points for the Sun (1-1).

"Sylvia got off to a big start," Sun coach Anne Donovan said. "When you're on the road it's really important that you get off to the right start defensively and I don't think we did that."

Fowles' 20-20 game was the 13th in WNBA history and first since Los Angeles' Nneka Ogwumike had 22 points and 20 rebounds last July 12.

"To outrebound any team by 14 is really, really good," Chicago coach Pokey Chatman said. "What I (also) like is that we were aggressive and attacked the basket to get to the free throw line."

The Sky went 18 for 20 on free throws.

Chicago led 67-56 after three quarters then missed 7 of 10 shots over first 4:15 of the fourth while Connecticut cut the deficit to single digits. However, the Sun got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

Chicago led 26-16 after one quarter as Fowles missed her first four shots, then hit six straight to close the period with 13 points and six rebounds. Connecticut was 8 for 25 (32 percent) from the field.

"I was a little antsy and I had to calm myself down," Fowles said. "I had my teammates on the bench encouraging me and pushing me helped me out a lot as well."

But Connecticut responded with a 8-2 surge to trim Chicago's edge to 42-39 behind six points from Charles. Delle Donne hit two free throws with 16.7 seconds remaining for a 44-39 halftime lead.

Delle Donne, the second overall pick in this year's WNBA draft, closed the half with 15 points while Fowles had 13 as the pair went a combined 10 for 16 from the field. Hightower and Charles had 10 points apiece.