Along the Lines with Tully Bevilaqua

Tully Bevilaqua, a 5-7 point guard from Merredin, Western Australia, was a member of the 2004 WNBA champion Seattle Storm and signed with the Indiana Fever last spring. A candidate for the league’s Most Improved Player award, she was named to the WNBA first-team Defensive Player squad, averaging a career-high 6.3 points per game. She scored more points and dished out more assists than her previous two seasons combined and is a key reason the Fever have reached the WNBA Eastern Conference Finals.

Q: All season long you’ve been diving for balls and getting thrown to the deck. Are your bones made out of rubber or what? Doesn’t it hurt to fall all the time like that?

A:It’s all in the way you fall and roll. I’ve been doing that all of my career so it’s second nature to me. Sometimes I wake up the next morning with a few stiff muscles here and there, but that’s what the trainer is for.

Q: You’re the only player on the team with a championship ring and your teammates talk about the leadership you bring. Do you feel like a leader?

A:That was one of the reasons they were after me to come to Indiana, and the opportunity to play more of a role on the team was very inviting. The opportunity to play with Tamika and Natalie Williams, a couple of great players, was also a factor. The organization definitely looked to me to be a leader on and off the court.

Q: How hard is it for you, personally, to be so far away from your husband and your family during the season?

A:It’s never easy. This is my seventh year, so I suppose I’ve gotten used to that and gotten into a routine. This year was particularly hard because my two dogs back home were both seriously ill at one point. Being separated from my husband during that was a rough patch. But he’s here now and has been here a couple of weeks so that’s certainly been nice.

Q: The Fever will be facing Connecticut, the best team in the league, in the next round of the playoffs. What will it take to get by them and make it to the WNBA Finals?

A:We always preach the fact that defense wins championships, and we just have to make sure we keep playing the level of intensity that we can. There are nights where our shooting percentage will fluctuate. We’ve been kind of hot and cold all year with that, but the one consistent thing has been our defense. And that’s why we ended up with a 21-13 record.