Tamika Catchings, Fever headed to WNBA Finals after topping Sun

• Indiana Fever beat Connecticut Sun 87-71 to win WNBA Eastern Conference finals in three games
• Tamika Catchings had 22 points and 13 rebounds in win
• Fever will face Minnesota Lynx in WNBA Finals

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Katie Douglas went down. The Indiana Fever rose to the occasion.

The Fever booked a place in the WNBA Finals with an 87-71 win Thursday against the Connecticut Sun, overcoming the early injury loss of leading scorer Douglas. Tamika Catchings scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Indiana, which lost the opening game of the best-of-three Eastern Conference finals series but came back to win the last two.

The Fever, who have won four games while facing elimination during the playoffs, won comfortably even after Douglas went down with an ankle injury just 5 minutes into the game.

"When Katie went down, you could just see the fire in everybody's eyes," coach Lin Dunn said. "We just took it to a whole 'nother level. We could have folded up our little tent and gone home when one of our big guns got hurt. But we didn't."

Douglas had b51 points in the first two games of this series. The bench picked up the slack with 32 points, led by Erin Philips who had 15. The Fever hit 10 three-pointers, including their first seven.

"Everyone just stepped up," Phillips said. "We showed a lot of poise and were aggressive. It was just an awesome team game."

WNBA MVP Tina Charles led the Sun with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Kara Lawson added 16 points.

Indiana will play at the defending champion Minnesota Lynx, which swept the Los Angeles Sparks in the Western Conference, in Game 1 of the best-of-five finals on Sunday.

Indiana has made eight consecutive trips to the postseason, but has played in the finals only once, losing to Phoenix in 2009. Catchings and Douglas are both in their 11th seasons, and neither has won a WNBA championship.

The Fever had never won a road elimination game in the playoffs. They are trying to become the first team to overcome 1-0 deficits in the first two rounds of the WNBA playoffs to win a title. They were 0-6 in road game in five Eastern Conference finals coming into Thursday's game.

"I'm tired of hearing, 'You can't ever do this in the third game' or 'You've never done this. You've never done that.' " Dunn said. "Now we've done it."