The record-setting comeback that ignited Indiana's WNBA semifinal run - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever sat in the locker room at Mohegan Sun Arena facing a big problem. It was Aug. 17, and they trailed the last-place Connecticut Sun by 19 points. Two games above .500 with three weeks remaining in the regular season, every game mattered in Indiana's quest to clinch a playoff spot.

But the hits kept coming. Ten days earlier, the Fever lost point guards Sydney Colson and Aari McDonald to season-ending injuries in the same game. Caitlin Clark had been out for a month and still had no timetable to return. And that very afternoon, in the second quarter, guard Sophie Cunningham suffered what looked to be a serious knee injury.

Fever coach Stephanie White presented a simple challenge to her players in the locker room. When things get tough, she said, people usually respond one of two ways: fight or flight. The Fever? They're fighters, she told them. They fight for one another every play, every day.

That's exactly what Indiana did in the second half, erasing a 21-point deficit to prevail 99-93 in overtime, the largest comeback in franchise history.

The game would prove to be a turning point for Indiana's season.

«No matter the circumstance, we showed up and we found it,» White said this week about the Connecticut game. «And I think at that moment, you could really understand how special this group was.»

The resilience and belief the Fever tapped into that afternoon helped them reach the franchise's first WNBA semifinal appearance since 2015 and remain steadfast as their series (1-1) shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Never mind that the Fever are the No. 6 seed. That they are without Clark and five other injured players. That they had to survive two elimination games