Maya Moore stars as Minnesota Lynx make it nine in a row with a win over Tulsa Shock – WNBA Recap
Reigning WNBA rookie of the year erupted with 26 point performance as the defending champions Minnesota Lynx continued their strong start in the season with a 93-73 win over the winless Tulsa Shock on Saturday night.
The win put the Lynx at par with 2001 and 2003 Los Angeles Sparks teams who had opened the season with 9 straight wins. A win against the Phoenix Suns on Friday will open a new record for the Lynx, who seem unbeatable at the moment.
Monica Wright also added 18 points for Minnesota; Rebekkah Brunson had 15 and Taj McWilliams-Franklin chipped in with 11 on a 5 of 6 shooting from the field.
Shock were paced by 15 first half points from Jennifer Lacy; Temeka Johnson added 14 points while Karima Christmas added 11.
The game was a matchup between the two extremes of the league. While Minnesota came into the game with 8 wins to boot, the Shock were desperate to avoid their 8th straight.
They did give Lynx a hard time till halftime, but a 14 point third quarter by Moore, which resulted in a 26-16 run knocked the steam out of Shock.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve credited Moore for the blowout win;
“This was a fun game for Maya, she was poised and yet she was aggressive,'' Reeve said. ``She took some tough shots, missed some easy ones, made some tough ones. All-in-all, she hit some timely shots for us in the third quarter
when we really needed her.”
Lynx were in their groove early and were leading by 15-8 going into the last four minutes of the first quarter. With 3:56 left in the frame Lacy knocked down a three to start a 10 point unanswered run, to which she provided an
exclamation mark with a three point play.
Minnesota responded back and took a 22-21 lead on a Brunson layup but a Christmas trey gave Shock a 24-22 lead going into the second quarter.
Shock extended their lead to as many as eight points, before Moore took over the game. She dropped 8 points in a 17-2 run which shifted the momentum and gave Minnesota a 42-35 lead.
Tulsa closed the half on a 7-2 run to pull within two, but their resistance was about to be blown away.
Minnesota launched a massive offensive in the third and although Shock managed to stay within striking distance for the first seven minutes, they just ran out of answers in the last three as Minnesota reeled off a 9-2 run to take
a 70-58 lead.
There was no coming back for Shock after that as the Lynx just kept on scoring at will to take the game by 20 points.
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