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Angel Reese Issues Reminder to Hailey Van Lith Amid Chicago Sky Struggles

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Parker Johnson | Last updated Jun 10, 2025 7:14 PM ET

Hailey Van Lith's rookie season with the Chicago Sky has gotten off to a rocky start.

If Chicago's 2-5 record heading into Tuesday night's game against undefeated WNBA champion New York Liberty was not bad enough, the Sky lost their veteran leader and starting point guard Courtney Vandersloot to a season-ending ACL injury in their previous loss to the Indiana Fever.

After being drafted with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, Van Lith was eased into the professional game as Vandersloot's understudy. Prior to Saturday's loss to Indiana, she had only played in four games, attempted 10 field goals and played a total of 37 minutes.

Everything changed when Vandersloot left Saturday's game in the first quarter, and Van Lith's former college teammate at LSU, Angel Reese, was the first one in her ear.

"Angel is a huge encourager for me," Van Lith said at shootaround before the game against New York on Tuesday. "In the game, when the injury happened and I had to play 25 minutes, she was reminding me what I do best, what spots I get to. If I wasn’t aggressive, she reminded me that I needed to be aggressive."

Those 25 minutes were her career high, but they came in a 79-52 loss to an Indiana team playing without superstar Caitlin Clark. Van Lith finished the game with seven points, zero assists and three turnovers.

She said after the loss that Vandersloot's injury was hard to deal with emotionally during the game, but she promised the struggling Sky would rebound from the "heartbreaking" moment.

The rookie may not immediately jump into the starting lineup going forward, but one thing she knows is that she will get more minutes on the court with Reese, who has had her back since the Tigers' run to the Elite Eight in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

"She’s great for me in that way and she knows my game really well," Van Lith said of Reese. "Sometimes when I can’t see it, she sees it for me and tells me about it. Definitely gonna help me a lot having her around, so I’m grateful for that."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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