The Storm used lights-out defense to fuel a dramatic comeback win over the Los Angeles Sparks Sunday night in the city of Angeles. With Olympian and WNBA All-Star guard, Jewell Loyd sidelined with a tweaked ankle Epiphany Prince seized the moment. Prince scored 18 points in her first start of the season, Ezi Magbegor scored a career 20 points off the bench and Breanna Stewart found her grove with a 20 point effort.
DEFENSIVE EFFORT KEYS RUN
The key to the Storms’ win was its defense. After some suspicious defensive play in the first three-quarters of the game, the Storm played championship defense to stifle the Sparks.
The Storm (14-4) were down 56-48 with 2:13 left in the third quarter at the Los Angeles Convention Center as L.A. (6-11) went on a 26-9 burst coming out of halftime.
But Seattle’s defense then limited the Sparks to just one field goal during the next eight minutes. That helped fuel a 30-8 scoring surge for a 78-64 lead with 3:55 to play. The closest Los Angeles came after that was eight inside the final minute.
A PRINCE OF GAME
In 31 minutes, Prince hit 6-of-12 from the field, all four free throws, adding two rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
Second-year center Magbegor poured in 16 of her points after halftime – eight each during the third and fourth quarters – on the way to her first career 20-point outing. She hit 7-of-11, was a perfect 6-of-6 from the line, and collected nine rebounds.
Stewart was back in the groove. She hit 8-of-15 from the floor, including 3-of-7 from behind the arc. Stewart scored just nine points on Friday against Atlanta, just the seventh time in her career that she did not hit for double figures. But for the fourth straight time, she scored at least 20 in her next contest.
SUE BIRD MOVES UP SCORING CHART
Sue Bird added 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting, with no turnovers in 29 minutes. That pushed her past Katie Smith into No. 6 on the all-time WNBA scoring list. Bird now has 6,464 points.
Combined, the foursome of Prince, Magbegor, Stewart, and Bird shot a combined 54.3 percent from the floor (25-of-46). The Storm had a 39-30 lead at halftime before the Sparks came out and scored on their first six possessions of the second half to climb back into the game.
After falling behind by eight, Seattle put together a 12-0 run bridging the third and fourth quarters, then rang up 11-straight points midway through the fourth to take command. Brittney Sykes and Erica Wheeler scored 19 points each for Los Angeles, which lost its fourth in a row.
The win kept the Storm atop the Western Conference Commissioner’s Cup standings at 6-1. Their final three games prior to the break for the Olympics will determine whether Seattle will represent the West in the Cup final on Aug. 12 in Phoenix. The first of those games is a Wednesday rematch against the Sparks at Angel Of The Winds Arena in Everett, tipping off at 7:00 p.m. (Antenna TV, CBSSN).
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