Shocked by exit, Delle Donne still relishes season

Elena Delle Donne didn’t mince words about the end of the Sky season Monday night.

“It’s shocking,” Delle Donne told reporters at Allstate Arena. “We definitely didn’t expect to be here and talking about exit physicals and exit meetings.”

Despite Delle Donne scoring 40 points, the Indiana Fever won 100-89 to eliminate the Sky in Game 3 of the best-of-three Eastern Conference semifinals. With that, the Sky’s hopes of repeating as conference champs and doing one better than last year’s WNBA Finals loss were gone.

But that doesn’t mean Delle Donne has bitter memories of the 2015 Sky. Far from it.

“This by far has been my favorite team to play on,” Delle Donne said. “It’s just a special group of players and that’s what will stand out the most. Obviously, this stings right now but we have such an incredible group and we’ve grown so much this season.”

Cappie Pondexter thinks the growth will continue.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go but that doesn’t mean that we should stop,” Pondexter said. “We have a whole year to individually get better, remember what our goal is moving forward, and the sky is the limit.”

Gearing up

The Wolves open training camp Tuesday at Triphahn Community Center and Ice Arena in Hoffman Estates. Coach John Anderson is back for the third season of his second stint with the Wolves, following a 40-29-7 campaign that ended in a first-round playoff loss to the Utica Comets.

The Wolves will play in a pair of preseason games. The first is Oct. 1 when they travel to Rockford to face the IceHogs and then they host the Milwaukee Admirals on Oct. 3 at Triphahn.

The regular season starts Oct. 10 when the Wolves host Milwaukee at Allstate Arena.