In my last column I mentioned some of my great memories as a sports writer here at the Greene County Daily World. As I have moved on, Sunday night proved to be yet another memorable moment in my journalism career.

With the end of the baseball regular season along with football season in full force, many people may not have been aware of an event taking place in Indianapolis Sunday evening -- Game 3 of the Women's National Basketball Association Finals.

To those of you still not too familiar with what I am getting at, the Indiana Fever were taking on the Phoenix Mercury at Conseco Fieldhouse, with the series tied at one game apiece.

Much to my surprise, the attendance for the game was 18,165 -- a sellout crowd. Aside from the actual players it would have been hard to determine that the game did not feature the Pacers against the Celtics with all of the ruckus taking place.

Before I get into in depth details about the game, I would like to share with you all a funny little story before tip-off. After my friend Mike and I got our photos taken to be plastered on our media credential passes -- neither one of us broke the camera, lol -- we proceeded to the media workroom to get our seating assignment for the game. Having never covered a professional event before, I was unaware of the seating chart for such a game. So after leaving the media room, we set out on an adventure to find out spots. After asking a handful of ushers -- or should I say people who were dressed to look important, but really didn't know where to direct us -- we finally arrived at our seats.

Our seats were at a media table on the second level -- not court-side like I had hoped, but still great seats -- and had our names labeled on a sticker on the table. Just as I was unpacking my laptop out of my bag and set to get everything organized, an older couple approaches us with tickets saying "you need to move out of our seats". I know most of you will find this hard to believe, but I kindly replied, this was a media table, pointed to the tags on the table and showed them it matched my media pass. The gentleman was not taking no for an answer and immediately went and found another usher. Knowing this was a table for media I proceeded to get my belongings set up, when I received another peck on the shoulder and heard the words "YOU NEED TO GET OUT", bellowed from an older gentleman -- the usher this time. The man did not ask us to move, but rather rudely and unprofessional told us we could not sit there.

Instead of causing an even bigger scene, Mike and I went and got a supervisor to handle the situation. There was a mix-up in the ticket sales, and ticketmaster sold OUR seats. A very friendly supervisor of seating named Ashley finally convinced the couple to make room for Mike and I at the table -- they declined different seats -- and the game was now underway.

To escalate the excitement, there was a SUPER FAN directly behind us the entire game. I did not catch this ladies name in fear of having my ear drum being completely blown out, but she would not have had a problem with making an announcement from one end of Indy to the other!

Now on with the game. It may have been the best basketball game -- men or women, pro or college -- that I have been in attendance for. I think women's basketball as a whole has the perception of not being very exciting or played at such a level as the men. This was definitely not the case Sunday night or for the entire series. The level of play was exceptional, the intensity was ever bit as much as the NBA, and the atmosphere was just indescribable.

The Fever raced out to an early 10-point lead in the first quarter, only to see the Mercury fight back and held a 7-point lead by the third quarter. Fever rookie Briann January, from Arizona State, sparked and 8-0 run for the home team at the end of the third frame to steal the momentum back. The 5-foot-4 guard finished with 17 points and earned a lot of praise from her veteran teammate Tamika Catchings (a Pat Summit product from Tennessee).

"It was great to see her step up like that for us," Catchings said of January in the post game press conference. "She's just a rookie, but she definitely hasn't played like it in the play-offs."

One of the most pivotal parts of the game came midway through the final frame. Diana Turasi -- in my opinion the best women's basketball player in this generation -- made a driving lay-up to tie the contest at 75 apiece. Turasi was knocked to the court after the hoop and quickly got to her feet to try and get back on defense. In the process, she collided with Katie Douglas of the Fever (a local icon from nearby Purdue). A technical was called on Turasi, and Catchings calmly sank the freebie to put the Fever back on top to swing the momentum once again.

Turasi -- who was named the MVP of the WNBA last week -- talked about the play after the game.

"I was on the floor, heard coach (Corey) Gaines yell telling me to get back on defense, so I jumped up and tried getting back down the court and then collided with Katie (Douglas). The ref said I elbowed her."

Turasi also provided some laughter on the call after a brief moment.

"All I know is Katie messed my bun (hair due) up," she chuckled.

Douglas also acknowledged she felt it was a bogus call.

"I think it was just organized chaos," the Purdue grad said. "I told Diana that I didn't feel like it was intentional."

She also made a joke of the situation.

"But I also feel like the refs are always right, so it was a good call," Douglas said with a laugh."

The one point ended up being the deciding factor, but the Mercury had a shot in the final seconds. After a controversial jump-ball situation gave the visitors possession with 3.4 second left they called time-out for the potential game-winning shot. As the Mercury head coach Gaines would later say in the press conference, his team did not get off the shot they had drawn up in the huddle, Tangela Smith leaner from the left elbow drew nothing but air as the game clock expired giving the Fever an 86-85 win and a 2-1 upper hand in the best of five series.

As stated earlier in this short novel, the crowd was phenomenal from the opening tip till the final buzzer. Fever coach Lin Dunn wanted to make sure the media knew exactly what the crowd meant to her squad.

"Please thank the fans," Dunn said before she exited the interview room. "The fans were just awesome and we look to see them back Wednesday night for the championship."

If the Fever win Game 4 Wednesday night at Conseco Fieldhouse it will mark the cities first basketball championship ever -- excluding the Pacers three ABA titles. Should the Fever lose Wednesday night, the fifth and decisive Game 5 will be Friday night in Phoenix.

If you are unable to attend the final game(s) you can also catch the action on ESPN 2. Tip-off for Game 4 will be at 7:30 and Game 5, if necessary, will be at 9 p.m.

I strongly encourage if you do not have anything planned on these nights and have not experience a WNBA game to give it a look. You won't be disappointed.

Travis David is a sports writer and can be reached via e-mail at sportswriter21_7@yahoo.com