What looked like to be the same old story took a bit of an unexpected twist for the Storm when they took on the Indiana Fever for the third and final time Sunday at Climate Pledge Arena. Going into Sunday matinee the Storm had won six consecutive games against the Fever. The longest winning streak over any team for the Storm.
SLUGGISH START
A sluggish start for the Storm saw the trade baskets with the Fever early in the first quarter. After shaking the doldrums from a rare four-day rest Breanna Stewart made 3 of 6 field goals to lead the Storm to a 26 -15 first-quarter lead. Ezi Megbegor was a perfect 3 of 3 from the field to chip in much-needed six points. Stewart carried the Storm in the second quarter on her way to a game-high 25 points. The odds-on favorite for league MVP finished the game by matching a season-high with four three-pointers and adding eight rebounds, three assists, and a steal. The Storm looked to be well on their way to another victory leading 42-31 at the break.
Versatility of offense
Despite a paltry 2-11 road record the Fever had belief and determination coming out of the break and went on a 10-2 run that cut the Storm’s lead to just three points with 6:11 to go at 41-41. After a time by Storm head coach Noelle Quin, the Storm outscored the Fever 11-7 to close out the 3rd quarter with a 48-55 lead. The time-out and the quarter break served as a loud wake call for the Storm who outscored the Fever 26-17 in the fourth to pull away for the victory.
POST GAME NOTES
The Storm held a 41-37 rebounding advantage and improved to 9-0 when outrebounding its opponent. Seattle also continued its recent trend of dominating in the paint, outscoring the Fever 44-36 in paint points. The Storm has scored 186 total points over its last four games, averaging 46.5 points per game after averaging 28.3 points in the paint through the previous 21 games.
Seattle heads back on the road for a pair of games, starting with an early game in Chicago on Wednesday, July 20. Tipoff is at 9:00 a.m. PT.
—— StormBasketball.com ——
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | SCORE | RECORD | HIGH PTS | HIGH REB | HIGH AST |
| INDIANA | 15 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 65 | 5-22 | N. Smith, 15 | N. Smith, 9 | Mitchell/Robinson, 4 |
| SEATTLE | 26 | 16 | 13 | 26 | 81 | 17-8 | B. Stewart, 25 | Williams/Stewart, 8 | S. Bird, 6 |
Breanna Stewart scored a game-high 25 points and the bench came alive in the second half to lead Seattle to an 81-65 win over Indiana on Sunday afternoon at Climate Pledge Arena.
The Storm picked up its fourth-straight win to improve to 17-8 on the season while the Fever drops to 5-22 having lost 10-straight.
Stewart carried Seattle through the first half, scoring 17 of her 25 points over the first 20 minutes. She finished the game matching a season-high with four three-pointers and adding eight rebounds, three assists and a steal. Jewell Loyd added 15 points along with five rebounds while Tina Charles came off the bench to tally 15 points—13 in the second half—on 6-of-11 shooting.
Charles contributions in the second half keyed the Storm bench’s impressive play as Seattle got 22 of its 39 second-half points from its bench personnel. In addition to Charles, Stephanie Talbot had seven points, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one emphatic block which she turned into a tough layup make on the other end.
Indiana started hot in the first quarter, opening an early 11-8 lead four minutes in. Seattle clamped down on defense, holding the Fever to just 1-of-7 while forcing three turnovers to ignite an 18-4 run over the final six minutes of the quarter and took a 26-15 lead after one.
Again, Indiana opened the second quarter strong, outscoring the Storm 8-2 early on. However, Seattle slowly chipped away and rattled off a 14-3 run midway through the period and led 42-31 at the half.
The story stayed the same in the third quarter as the Fever opened with a 10-2 run to cut Seattle’s lead to three at 44-41. The Storm would respond again in a big way, using an 11-4 run—with Charles scoring seven-straight—and led 55-48 heading to the fourth.
Through the first three quarters, Seattle had been outscored 29-12 through the first four minutes of the quarter, but outscored Indiana 44-19 over the final six minutes of each quarter.But Seattle would not let Indiana get off to a hot start in the fourth, jumping out on a 10-2 run to open a 15-point advantage three minutes in and didn’t look back. Indiana would get no closer than 13 the rest of the way in the victory.
