Chicago Sky’s Allie Quigley wins WNBA 3-point contest for record fourth time

CHICAGO — Allie Quigley said this time she means it: She is retiring from the WNBA All-Star 3-point shooting contest.

But her finish was spectacular. Quigley won the event for the fourth time Saturday, something no one else has done in the WNBA or NBA.

“Retired in my hometown: It’s a good storybook ending, I’d say,” said Quigley, who grew up in Joliet, part of the greater Chicago area, and played collegiately at DePaul. She previously won the competition in 2017, 2018 and 2021. She went out in the first round in 2019, and there was no All-Star Game during the COVID-19 bubble season in 2020.

Quigley, who turned 36 in June, is still going strong as a player, averaging 10.8 points per game for the defending WNBA champion Sky, who lead the WNBA at 16-6. But the pressure of the 3-point contest actually made her say she wouldn’t do it again after winning her third title last year, in Las Vegas.

That was before the 2022 All-Star Game was awarded to Chicago. She said she realized about three weeks ago she needed to do the competition one more time.

Saturday at McCormick Place, across the street from Sky’s Wintrust Arena home, Quigley won the first round with 26 points, and then in the final round faced Washington’s Ariel Atkins and Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard, who each had 24 first-round points. Quigley then easily took the title again, totaling 30 points to Atkins’ 21 and Howard’s 14.

Quigley’s Sky teammates were cheering her on, including her wife, fellow guard Courtney Vandersloot, and Candace Parker, who wore Parker’s No. 14 DePaul jersey. Both Parker and Quigley were drafted in 2008, with Parker at No. 1 and Quigley at No. 22 in the second round. Quigley was cut five times by four teams before sticking in the WNBA for good with Chicago in 2013.

One thing she…