Big stars usually steal the spotlight in the WNBA, but for Kelsey Mitchell, the true unsung hero of the Indiana Fever has a different name.<\/p>\n
The guard surprised everyone by pointing out that Sophie Cunningham is the team\u2019s true \u201cglue,\u201d even ahead of high-profile players like Caitlin Clark or Lexie Hull.<\/p>\n
Kelsey Mitchell highlights Cunningham\u2019s role on the Fever<\/p>\n
During Tuesday\u2019s decisive 113-91 victory over the Toronto Tempo\u2014the fourth consecutive win for Stephanie White\u2019s team\u2014Mitchell shone with 27 points, but Sophie wasn\u2019t far behind, posting her best scoring performance of the season.<\/p>\n
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The 29-year-old veteran tallied 24 points, 6 rebounds, and two assists in 24 minutes of play. However, her impact isn\u2019t felt only on the court.<\/p>\n
After the game, the three-time WNBA All-Star was asked by USA Sports about the former Phoenix Mercury player\u2019s role in Indiana. And Mitchell didn\u2019t hold back her praise:<\/p>\n
\u201cSoph is like the glue stick to this team,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI think without her, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are. Her energy, her effort, her ability to shoot the ball, it just opened up so many avenues for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, in addition to her stats and on-court contributions,\u00a0Kelsey\u00a0highlighted other aspects of Cunningham\u2019s influence off the court:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as a friend, as a sister, Soph is one of the ones that she wants to look for a lot of stuff,\u201d Mitchell continued. \u201cAnd so hats off to her for making it worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelsey\u2019s praise comes at a positive time for Indiana, which seems to have found a better collective version of itself thanks to the contributions of several players surrounding Clark, Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston.<\/p>\n
In that context, Cunningham has also become one of the emotional leaders in the locker room and a key figure in maintaining the team\u2019s cohesion.<\/p>\n
Since joining the Fever, the former Missouri player has earned a reputation for being an intense, vocal teammate who is always ready to support her teammates on the court. Currently, Cunningham is averaging 10.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 13 games.<\/p>\n
Now, the Indiana Fever (9-5) are preparing to face Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream this Thursday, June 18, at 7:30 PM ET at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big stars usually steal the spotlight in the WNBA, but for Kelsey Mitchell, the true unsung hero of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-712124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}