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Chennedy Carter drops 33 as Storm lose 88-84 to Sky

 By Owen Murray

Every night has its dawn, they say. For every storm, there’s a clear sky, and for every blowout win, there’s a heat check that falls just short. After winning four on the bounce, the Seattle Storm (13-7) dropped a home game, 88-84, for the first time in eight chances against the Chicago Sky (8-11) on Friday night. Sky guard Chennedy Carter led all scorers with 33 points and rookie All Star selection Angel Reese finished with a career-high 27 points and 10 rebounds.

The Sky lead the WNBA in fouls per game, with 20.1, and the trend emerged early. Four team fouls within the first five minutes, including a flagrant foul against Chicago guard Chennedy Carter, unbalanced the matchup.

Forced to play from behind — the Storm opened up a three-possession lead in the first quarter — the Sky struggled to make use of their post strength, where they lead the league in points and offensive rebounds. Seattle’s Ezi Magbegor’s three first-quarter blocks forced Chicago rookies Reese and Kamilla Cardoso to take shots from outside the paint. The center finished with eight blocks, her career high and the most in a WNBA game since 2019.

“Ezi cleaned up a lot of our mistakes,” Storm head coach Noelle Quinn said. “A lot of those blocks came from outside — not necessarily mistakes but them getting downhill and Ezi being vertical and using her instincts to block shots.”

Despite the Storm’s early confidence, the Sky led 23-22 after the first period. The Storm began wasting opportunities and chasing 3-point shots, where they sit second-bottom of the league in percentage made. Seattle hoisted eight first-half efforts from beyond the arc and made none. Meanwhile, Chicago began to decipher its post problem. With Magbegor on the bench, Reese began to heat up and ended the half with 16 points, leading all scorers, and six rebounds.

“She plays with energy,” forward Nneka Ogwumike said, “she plays with energy and confidence. It’s not necessarily something that she’s known for, but she’s in the league, you know, [and] everybody in this league is capable and she showed that today.”

While Olympian Jewell Loyd made just one shot in 17 first-half minutes, with college basketball phenom Paige Bueckers courtside, the Storm found their groove and led 42-40 at the half. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as Monday’s blowout of the Dallas Wings, but Seattle fought its battle underneath the hoop well.

Chicago’s issues were seemingly compounded when Reese picked up her fourth foul under four minutes into the second half and sat on the bench until the fourth quarter, but even without her, the Sky put together a 12-5 run and sprung into their largest lead of the game. 

That run continued as the Storm struggled to recover their halftime advantage and trailed throughout the second half. After holding the Sky to 17 second-quarter points, they allowed 30 to open the second half. 22 of those third-quarter points came in the paint, matching Chicago’s first-half total.


“I don’t believe that we’ve given up 30 points in a quarter this season,” Quinn said. “Naked [offensive] boards … I felt that some of our pace stuff offensively was lacking, and just the energy level.”

Playing with two fouls to give, Reese re-entered the game with a dagger 3-point shot to extend the Sky advantage to eight points. Seattle never recovered, and could only whittle the gap down to two points.

It seemed that every time the Storm began to tug the momentum back, they threw it away. Jordan Horston grabbed a rebound over Cardoso and, with a chance to cut the lead to one possession, saw her pass fly out of bounds.

A red-hot Carter, whose performance after picking up her flagrant foul spiked, hit 30 points in the final quarter, but a 6-0 Storm run in the final 90 seconds brought Climate Pledge Arena back to life, and with 20.9 seconds on the clock, Chicago led by just two points.

“She’s a tough matchup because she puts so much pressure at the rim,” Quinn said. “She’s very athletic. We have a very athletic defender on her, and when you contest with verticality, she’s still able to get to the penthouse and finish over you.”

The ball rolled out of bounds on the subsequent inbound play — Sky ball — but Seattle called a timeout to challenge the ruling. The challenge failed, and the Storm were left to foul in desperation without a timeout.

Reese made all four of four her free throws in the final minute, and drained any remaining hope from the building.

“Every rep that we can get this season with those two [Ogwumike and Horston] particularly is important,” Quinn said. “It is like a playoff cadence as relates to playing them again on Sunday. Whether it’s the energy of the crowd, the tight game, possession by possession… these are reps that are very important to our young players.”

Despite the loss, Seattle still owns one of the best home records in the league. The Storm wrap up their two-game series against the Sky on Sunday night before welcoming the red-hot Las Vegas Aces to Climate Pledge Arena the following Wednesday. Both the Storm and Aces’ league-leading streaks were extinguished on Friday, as Las Vegas lost out to the Los Angeles Sparks in overtime.

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