By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Disciplined defensive effort by Storm earns  77-70 home opening win over Mercury

Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike each scored 24 points to lead the Storm  to a payback win

The  Seattle Storm faced off for the second time against the  Phoenix  Mercury  Friday night at Climate Pledge Arena.  The first meeting between the two clubs took place on May 17th at the Phoenix Arena. It was the season opener for both teams. The Mercury were rude hosts to the Storm with an 81-59 wire-to-wire win. The 22-point win by the Mercury was the largest margin of victory in a season opener. The Storm were out-rebounded, outshot and out-hustled. After the loss, the team licked its wounds, headed to Dallas, and evened its season record with a 79-71 win over the Dallas Wings.

 DISCIPLINED AND FOCUSED.

On Friday night, the Storm returned the favor with a disciplined defensive effort that held the Mercury to just 26 second-half points. In the Dallas win, the Storm held the Wings to just ten fourth-quarter points.

 “I’m not gonna talk about that first game. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. 
This is us, this is who we are. We know who we should be. I think. After that first game, we weren’t even, like, worried,” said Gabby Williams during  Friday night’s post-game interview. 
”We knew it was a one-off. We knew that wasn’t our identity. It’s not what we’ve been working on the last three weeks, so we just, we were us the last two games “ In addition to being disciplined on the defensive end , the Storm were  efficient on the offensive end.

EARLY TONE


The Storm reeled off a 13-5 run late in the first quarter to set the tone, with 14  of the teams first 24 points coming from inside the paint. A back-and-forth second  quarter saw the Storm head to the halftime break trailing 42-44.   Half-time adjustments saw the Storm close out the third quarter with an 8-0 and regain the lead by one point at  62-61.

” I thought our physicality throughout the game, and that’s where I felt we liked in the first game. 
They took us out as some of our stuff, but we were really intentional about stringing together stops to finish the quarters. And that’s where we feel like we could be better at it, starting and finishing quarters more intentionally, and I thought we did a good job of doing both at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, ” added Williams.

STIFFLING DEFENSE TO THE END

The Storm added four answered points to make it a 12-0 run between the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.  The Storm kept the Mercury off the board for the first 6:01 seconds of the fourth quarter.  Mercury  forward Satou Sabally hit one two free throws with  7:36 left in the game.  Back-to-back three-pointers by Monique Akoa-Makani saw the  Mercury tie the game at 70  with 4:45 to play.  The treys by Akoa-Makani were the last points the Mercury would score. Diggins and  Ogwumike closed out the scoring for the Storm who secured the opening night victory. For Storm head coach Noelle Quinn  exemplified the way she wants her team to play

“I thought that both sides of basketball, we were pretty sharp and we were able to get to, I think we had a we had like 11 stops in a row over a course of the second half, and then we ended the game with nine stops in a row. That’s really where we want to live in,” said Quinn . 


 VETERAN LEADERSHIP

 On a day Diggins tied Sue Bird’s record for most assists in a game with 14 and Ogwumike scored four clutch points to seal the win, Quinn could not help but have admiration and gratitude for her two leaders, who both finished with 24 points. Ogwumike had eight defensive rebounds after shooting 11-15 from the field. Diggins was 8-16 from the field, made 7-9 free throws, pulled down four rebounds,  and two assists.

“Sky’s elite. And I think we’re, you know, for so long, we’ve played against her and I sing her every day, I just understand her greatness. It’s, you know, where she takes her mind, how she prepares her body. 
But to be mentioned with Sue Bird in this franchise, it’s amazing, because obviously the Hall of Fame career that Sue had, you know, cmitted herself to be one of the greats in for Sky to be able to continue to come into a new organization and continue to shine bright and it really speaks volumes to who she is. Not only here in Seattle, but further entirely.”

As for Ogwumike, Quinn was unequivocal about what an honor it is to coach her.

“It is an honor to coach her. starting with her leadership, starting with, you know, just how she leads by example, but also what she does every day to prepare herself for battle. Taking care of her body, you know, her film study, and all the questions that she asks is that is a student of the game, as good as she is, she’s still getting better. putting her in space. you know, her getting 17 rebounds last game. 
She’s a very elite, but also she plays the right way. She’s not rush, she’s not sped up. She plays within herself, she plays some really good basketball, and defensively, she has to guard AT ( Alyssa Thomas) for an entire game. 
I think Sky’s right. We need to appreciate Nneka  for the player that she is. She’s, you know, I can go on and on about her”

KEY STATS TO THE GAME

KEY STATS OF THE GAME  

·       Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike each scored 24 points to lead Seattle. 

·       Seattle scored 19 points off assists from Skylar Diggins in the first half, and she scored or assisted on 33 of the team’s 42 first-half points. 

·       The Storm’s transition defense limited the Mercury to 25% (3-of-12) shooting on fast-break opportunities. 

·       Seattle held the Mercury scoreless for the final 4:48 of the fourth quarter after previously holding Phoenix scoreless for more than five minutes between the 3:37 mark of the third and the 7:36 mark of the fourth quarter. 

STORM HIGHLIGHTS 

·       Skylar Diggins finished with 24 points and a career-high 14 assists, tying the Storm franchise record for assists in a single game. Diggins recorded eight assists before the break to set her new high for assists in a half with the Storm and became the first player in franchise history to record at least seven assists in the first half of back-to-back games. Diggins also added a pair of blocks to become the first guard in franchise history to begin a season with three consecutive games of at least one block.  

·       Nneka Ogwumike racked up 24 points and added eight rebounds while shooting 73.3% (11-of-15) from the field. Ogwumike moved into eighth on the WNBA’s all-time defensive rebounding list (2,191) and recorded 15 points for the 246th time in her career, passing Cappie Pondexter for the fifth-most such games in WNBA history. She also recorded her 35th career game with a steal against Phoenix to pass Ticha Penicheiro for the second-most games with a steal by any Mercury opponent, and now only trails Sue Bird’s 45 such games. 

·       Gabby Williams posted 11 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists, and a pair of steals. Williams surpassed 500 points with the Storm and made three triples for the second consecutive game, tying her career high for three-pointers made in a two-game span at six. 

MERCURY HIGHLIGHTS 

·       Alyssa Thomas led the Mercury with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists.  

·       Satou Sabally added 15 points and nine rebounds.  

UP NEXT: The Storm face the Las Vegas Aces at home on Sunday, May 25 at 3:00 pm PT. The game will be broadcast on KOMO and CW Seattle, as well as streamed on Prime Video for those in Washington State. 

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