Stephanie White Speaks Honestly After Fever Forward Plays 0 Minutes Against Mystics

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Paolo Songco | Last updated Aug 16, 2025 8:37 AM ET

The Indiana Fever slipped to the No. 7 spot in the WNBA on Friday. They suffered their second straight loss after falling to the Washington Mystics, 88-84, which coincided with the Golden State Valkyries securing a 90-59 win over the Chicago Sky.

It’s the Valkyries who are now sixth in the league with an 18-15 record, while the Fever have fallen to seventh at 18-16.

Indiana head coach Stephanie White spoke to reporters after the loss, and one of the questions she was asked was about Chloe Bibby getting benched. Bibby, who joined the Fever as a free agent recruit in July, was coming off arguably her best performance for Indiana after she scored 11 points in just 12 minutes during Tuesday’s loss to the Dallas Wings.

The 6-foot-2 forward did not log any playing time on Friday, and Coach White spoke honestly about her decision after the game.

"Yeah, there were some thoughts (on bringing Bibby in)," White said. "I think it was the match-up defensively, more than anything, with the way that we were going to try to play them. Some of our switches and things like that. So that was mostly the reason.”

steph white on not playing chloe bibby:

“it [was] the match-up defensively, more than anything, with the way that we were gonna try to play [the mystics]. some of our switches and things like that. that was mostly the reason.” pic.twitter.com/l7bGuOvUhC
— cc akgae (@clrkszn) August 16, 2025

For what it’s worth, Bibby entered Friday’s contest averaging 10.1 minutes off the bench over the last eight games, putting up 4.4 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.1 triples.

As White revealed in her response, Bibby’s benching was more of a tactical decision than anything else.

Indiana will be back in action on Sunday in a road matchup against the Connecticut Sun, and it will be interesting to see if Bibby will be able to log any playing time in that one.

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

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