Sue Bird guides Seattle Storm to 86-73 victory over Tulsa Shock – WNBA Recap
Seattle Storm defeated the Tulsa Shock 86-73 at the BOK centre on Friday night. The victory was the second for the Storm against the Shock this season, and helped them improve to a 2-7 record this season.
Tulsa on the other hand are yet to win a game this season and with this loss slumped to 0-9 for the season.
Sue Bird led Seattle with a game high 21 points while Jennifer Lacy had 16 for the night for Tulsa.
"Tulsa is an aggressive team and you have to counter that by spacing the floor and we did that tonight. Sue took it upon herself to get us going on offense and we had a good balance of scoring,'' said Brian Agler, head coach of
Seattle.
Seattle took an early lead and kept it throughout the first period. A three pointer by Ewelina Kobryn in the final minute of the period gave Seattle a 21-12 advantage. However, back to back three pointers by Lacy cut the lead down
to only 3 as the Shock trailed 18-21 at the close of the period.
Seattle returned the favour by starting the second period with back to back threes by Tina Thompson. This was followed by a three point play by Shekinna Stricklen that capped off a 9-0 by Seattle to take a commanding 30-18 lead
in the opening minutes of the 2nd period. Tulsa did a good job of cutting back on the lead by going on a 6-0 run to trail 32-27. However, 8 points in the final minute by Seattle was enough for them to grab a 53-43 lead at halftime.
A total of 57 points were scored in the 2nd period alone, with Seattle outscoring Tulsa 32-25. They also had the advantage over Tulsa in rebounds, grabbing 17 against only 6 for Tulsa in the first half.
Seattle quickly stretched their lead to 58-43 with 5 quick points to open the third period. They maintained a comfortable lead throughout the rest of the period and entered the final quarter of the game leading by 72-61.
Five straight points to open the final period had Seattle up 77-61 and by then it had become inevitable that Seattle would win the game. They went on to win 86-73 in low scoring final quarter where Seattle only scored 14 points
and Tulsa managed 12.
Bird was in great form, going 9 of 12 from the field and 3 of 5 from the distance to finish with 21 points and 7 rebounds. She scored on the first 9 field goal attempts, going 100% for much of the game.
Katie Smith had 17 points and 4 rebounds. She provided good support to Bird. Tina Thompson came off the bench to score 16 points, going 5 of 6 from the field including a perfect 4 of 4 from the distance. Lacy led the scoring for
Tulsa with 16 points. Temeka Johnson had 13 points and 8 assists and was 2 of 2 from the distance. Glory Johnson had 13 points and 5 rebounds while Kayla Pedersen finished with 10 points as well.
Seattle were too good for Tulsa on the night. They shot 54.7% from the field and were 12 of 27 from the distance. Shock managed to go 39.3% from the field and 8 of 17 from beyond the arc on a good night for three point shooting.
Seattle also had a 36-23 advantage over Tulsa in rebounds, allowing them to take second shot opportunities.
"Sue Bird showed tonight why she's the best point guard in the world. She's been struggling lately but she got healthy against us,'' said Tulsa coach Gary Kloppenburg.
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