Sue Bird, Swin Cash lead Seattle Storm past Tulsa Shock 82-77 – WNBA Recap
On Tuesday night, the defending champion Seattle Storm overpowered the slumping Tulsa Shock 82-77 in a hard-fought fixture at BOK Center.
Seattle’s Sue Bird had a game high 21 points, six assists, two rebounds, and two steals for Storm, who bounced back from a 74-50 defeat against the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday night. The 30-year-old guard ended with a fantastic
8 for 10 from the field and a breath-taking 3 for 4 from three-point range.
Swin Cash scored 17 points, shooting 7 for 14 from the field, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out four assists in the victory. Camille Little also contributed 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals for the Storm,
who got 10 points and four rebounds from Lecoe Willingham. Seattle’s Lauren Jackson left the game in the first half with a hip injury and did not return to the court for rest of the period. The three-time MVP scored four points prior to her injury.
For Tulsa, Tiffany Jackson scored a team high 20 points, shooting a perfect 12 for 12 from free throw line. She was also dominant on the paint with 10 rebounds across the board and two steals.
Kayla Pedersen contributed 15 points, four assists and four rebounds on the night, centre Liz Cambage came off the bench with 13 points and six rebounds while Ivory Latta pounded 11 points in Shock’s sixth defeat of this season.
Storm as a team, had an outstanding night on the defensive end, holding Tulsa to 38.6 percent shooting.
Shock got off to a hot start and went on a 7-0 run in the last two minutes of the first quarter, taking a 20-13 lead into the second. In the second quarter, Tulsa continued to ruffle the defending champions and extended their
advantage to 14 points, 27-13 early. However, Seattle outplayed Shock 18-10 in rest of the period and cut the deficit to six points, 37-31, at halftime.
Seattle opened the third quarter with an 11-2 rally to take a 42-39 lead. In the passage that followed, Shock threatened to come back, and drew within 47-43 on Jackson’s slam midway through the frame. However, Tulsa could not get
over the hump as Storm responded and pushed the lead to 11 points, 61-50, heading into the fourth.
Leading by 11 after three periods, Seattle could not handle Tulsa Shock in the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter as they trimmed the deficit to three, 78-75, with 01:05 to go. However, Storm successfully turned it on down
the stretch and scored the next four points of the quarter to stretch the lead to 82-75 with nine seconds remaining. Jackson’s lay-up at the buzzer was not enough to cut the margin.
Tags: