Despite fifth straight loss Storm find positives in 80-76 loss to Liberty

The numbers speak for themselves. The Seattle Storm have lost five in a row and on  Saturday lost a third consecutive game to the New York Liberty and now stand at 4-14 for the season. Going into the season it was a given the Storm would struggle. What makes great franchises great is their ability to be real.  Saturday’s nail-biting loss to the Liberty brought two realities,  the Liberty have an abundance of talent compared to the Storm. The second is the Storm future is bright.

REASON TO BELIEVE  

 A close loss to the second-best team in the league is not something one normally hangs their hat on.  But when you three rookies show signs of greatness hope springs eternal. Rookie   Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadei started her first game for the Storm and delivered in a big way.  Fankam Mendjiadei recorded her first pro-double-double, scoring  12 points and  14 rebounds.  The  6 foot 3 second-round draft pick from Cameroon played a team-high 37 minutes.

 Her active play around the basket kept the Storm in the game chasing loose balls, batting passes, and grabbing rebounds to ignite the Storm transition game.

Fellow rookie  Jordon Horston scored eight points and pulled down 11  rebounds.  Like Fankam Mendjiadei she was active on defense and disrupted the  Liberty’s offense. The third rookie in the triplet   Ivana  Dojkic scored eight points connecting on two of six-point attempts.

CLOSE BUT  NOT ENOUGH

With the rookies firing the Storm were hung with Liberty from the first quarter to the last with additional contributions from Sami Whitcomb  19 pts and  WNBA scoring leader Jewell Loyd 14pts and first-time all-star Ezi Magbegor who chipped in 10pts  pulled down eight rebounds and dished out a team-high eight assists. Loyd tweaked her ankle in the third quarter and was helped to the locker room, returned, and finished the game on the bench.

There have been no updates on the severity of Loyd’s injury.

A TIGHT AFFAIR

A game that was tied 10 times with eight lead changes was won by the superior Liberty whose firepower overwhelmed the Storm down the stretch after a valiant comeback effort by the Storm. A  Liberty ten-point ( 78-66)  lead with 3:04 left in the game quickly evaporated with two three-pointers and a bucket by Sami Whitcomb in a minute and a half to narrow the lead to two points at 78-76.  Unfortunately for the Storm, those would be their last points of the game as the  Liberty hung on for the   80-76 win.

BIG TAKE

The Storm are still a team in transition, the addition of Gabby Williams will help on the defensive end. Where the hope lies for head coach Noelle Quinn is the emergence of her three rookies and some separation in growth.  Whitcomb’s 19 points show she is a capable scorer and Ivan Dojkic has the ability to score from the perimeter but needs to be more consistent.  Back-to-back games against the  Mystics (July 11th ) and  Atlanta Dream ( July 12)  will put an end to the first half of the season for the Storm. Consistency and continued growth will bring hope to the fan base. A slip in effort, focus, and determination will send the fan base the other way.  

POST GAME NOTES

Team	1	2	3	4	FINAL	HIGH PTS	HIGH REB	HIGH AST
Seattle	16	20	18	22	76	S Whitcomb 19	D Fankam Mendjiadeu 14	E. Magbegor 6
Liberty	18	17	25	20	80	B. Stewart 25	B. Stewart 8	S. Ionescu 8

STORY OF THE GAME

• Seattle’s Sami Whitcomb ignited on an 8-0 run to pull the score within two (78-76) with 1:39 to play after the Liberty took its largest lead of the game, but a pair of free throws in the last seconds gave N.Y. the final edge.
• The Storm rallied a 17-6 run spanning from the first into the second quarter to turn a nine-point deficit into a two-point lead. Both teams continued hitting shots back and forth, never pulling further than eight points, until the Liberty went on a 14-4 spree to build a 10-point edge with 3:04 remaining on the clock.

KEY STATS OF THE GAME

• There were ten ties and eight lead changes in the game, including the 64-64 tie at the 6:10 mark in the fourth quarter before the Liberty went on a 14-4 run to set the first double-digit edge of the game (78-68).
• Seattle outrebounded New York 48-30—including 15-4 on offensive boards—after pulling down 33 and 31 rebounds in its the last two contests, respectively.
• The Storm held the Liberty to only 35 points in the first half, the second fewest by an opponent this season.

STORM HIGHLIGHTS

• Whitcomb led the charge with a team-high 19 points including 12 in the fourth quarter, recording season-highs in field goals made (8) and attempted (14), in addition to six rebounds, three assists, and one steal.
• Jewell Loyd scored 14 points before leaving the game with a left ankle sprain early in the fourth quarter. She also had four rebounds, two assists, one steal before her exit.
• Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu made her first WNBA start and finished with a 12-point, 14-rebound double-double, two blocks, one assist, and one steal. She is just the second Storm rookie with 12+ pts and 10+ reb in a game.
• Ezi Magbegor finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and a career-high six assists.
• Jordan Horston came off the bench to add eight points and 11 rebounds, her third career game with 10+ reb.

LIBERTY HIGHLIGHTS

• Only two Liberty players finished in double figures: Breanna Stewart (25) and Sabrina Ionescu (20).
• Ionescu shot 6-of-12 from beyond the arc, including 3-of-3 in the Liberty’s late, game-clinching 14-4 run.

RECORDS AND MILESTONES

• Magbegor reached 500 career rebounds with her fourth board of the game, becoming the third youngest Storm player to do so (prev.: L. Jackson and B. Stewart), and the eighth fastest of the 16 Storm players with that mark.
• Horston scored her 100^th career point, marking the 23^rd Storm rookie with at least 100 points in their inaugural season as a pro, and the second this season (Dojkić).

NEXT GAME

The Storm has two games left before the All-Star break, first facing the Washington Mystics on Tuesday at 4 p.m. PT. The broadcast is available FOX13+ in the Puget Sound area and can be streamed in on Amazon Prime Video (Washington).

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