The Fever opened the second quarter with a 9-2 run to open a 12-point lead. They led by 10 with six minutes left in the half, but the Lynx put together a 17-7 run to tie score 50-50 with one minute left in the half. Lexi Hull scored her 18th point of the half to give the Fever a 52-50 halftime lead.
McBride scored 14 of her 16 first-half points in the second quarter and Shepard had 11 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
After McBride scored the first basket of the second half to tie the game, Shepard scored to put the Lynx up 54-52 — their first lead of the game. Those two baskets started a 13-4 run for the Lynx which gave the Lynx a 63-56 lead. The Fever didn’t get closer than six the rest of the quarter as the Lynx, who were 13 of 16 from the field in the quarter, took a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Lynx opened an 87-73 lead with six minutes remaining. After Shepard put the Lynx ahead 89-76, Aliyah Boston scored eight unanswered points to pull the Fever within 89-84 with 2:02 to play. The Fever got within 93-88 within eight seconds remaining, but McBride sealed the victory with two free throws.
After the four-point loss to the Dream on Thursday, Reeve had said the Lynx starters had played well, but they didn’t get much production from the bench. Bench produced only 11 points on Thursday. The Lynx bench scored 20 points in the first half Friday including 10 points from Natisha Hiedeman and outscored the Fever bench 27-13 for the game as Hiedeman finished with 17 points.
The Lynx, who had 18 turnovers on Thursday, had eight on Friday.