Tiffany Mitchell’s Homecoming, three hours from home

She wasn’t going to remain quiet. Not Sunday, when half of Philips Arena was cheering for her.

As the several dozen South Carolina fans who flocked to the game well knew, Tiffany Mitchell is too good to be too bad.

The three-time All-American didn’t have gaudy stats, but helped lead Indiana to a near-comeback win. The Fever lost 85-76, but rallied from an 18-point deficit to take the lead before Atlanta’s size wore them down.

Mitchell finished with 14 points, four rebounds and two steals, fighting early foul trouble and cold shooting. Yet there were those moments where, in the fifth game of her rookie season, Mitchell felt like she was back at Colonial Life Arena – with former coaches, teammates and plenty of fans packed into the seats watching her do exactly what she did for the Gamecocks from 2012-16.

The steal and ankle-breaking crossover for a layup, finished through contact. Swishing the clutch 3-pointer. Mitchell scored 18 points in her professional debut earlier this month, the second-highest total by a rookie in Fever history, and nobody who was cheering for her on Sunday was surprised.

“They’ve been tweeting all week that they were going to be here and it was a lot of fans. For them to show up for her, it really shows how important she is to the program,” Fever and future Vanderbilt coach Stephanie White said. “I think it really shows their passion for Gamecock women’s basketball, and we were delighted to have them all.”

Yellow Indiana shirts with her name and new number (3, instead of the familiar 25) were present, as well as plenty of garnet and black. The home-team Dream asked fans to form columns for the teams to enter through – every person in each tunnel was wearing USC or Mitchell colors.

“It felt great,” Mitchell said. “It felt like Colonial all over again.”

She entered the game second among WNBA rookies in scoring average and field-goal percentage, as well as first in steals and tops among the Fever with 14 points per game. Indiana has been impressed with how much of a following it picked up when it drafted her, and isn’t disappointed with the early results – Mitchell scored nine straight the other night in Minnesota, leading the Fever from down 23 to a two-point deficit, which was the biggest comeback in league history.

Like Sunday, they didn’t win. But with Mitchell on the roster, the Fever might have the player to make them winners.

“I’m my biggest critic, so I know there are a lot of things I could have done differently,” Mitchell said. “I took some quick shots that probably I should have held onto in the long run.

“But I’m excited they came out for this game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the win, but it is good to have them in the stands.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 6:17 PM with the headline "Tiffany Mitchell’s Homecoming, three hours from home."