Courtney Vandersloot Drops the Second Triple-Double in WNBA Playoff History

The WNBA semifinals are off with a bang between the Sky-Sun double overtime in Game 1 and Courtney Vandersloot making league playoff history with only the second triple-double. 

Only the Sky point guard "had not idea" she had that stat line until ESPN reporter Holly Rowe told her on national television. Vandersloot's eyebrows shot up when she heard about the 10 rebounds, 18 assists (a league playoff-record) and 12 points she posted. Sheryl Swoopes is the only other WNBA player to tally a playoff triple-double in 2005. 

In addition to making WNBA playoff history, the point guard broke Sue Bird's assist record (16), which was set last postseason. 

"I have so many threats around me," Vandersloot said. "I was just trying to be aggressive. My team was getting into open spots. I got a couple 'thread the needles' late. It's just kind of my role so I just try to continue to do that.

"Wow, that's awesome." 

Chicago walked away with a close 101–95 victory on Tuesday night in the opener of its best-of-five semifinal series against Connecticut. The game was tied at 93 when Candace Parker hit a layup off a pass from Vandersloot for her record-breaking assist. Parker tallied 22 points in 39 minutes of play.

"This is playoff time," Vadersloot said about the win. "This is what we want. We want to be in this situation. We just got to get through, push through ... I think Candace played huge minutes tonight, and that's hard on her. But, she was great down the stretch. This is an exciting group."  

Meanwhile, league MVP Jonquel Jones led the Sun with 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Most Improved Player Brionna Jones tallied 22 points and 10 rebounds. 

Tuesday night marked WNBA's first double-overtime playoff game since 2015, which was between the Mystics and Liberty.