Tanisha Wright shines as Seattle Storm edge out San Antonio Silver Stars 82-76: WNBA Recap
On Friday night Tanisha Wright was on fire for the Seattle Storm.
She tallied 20 points with 14 of those coming in the fourth quarter to orchestrate an 82-76 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars.
The 20 point performance was the best Tanisha has put up so far this season and complemented it with 7 assists and 5 boards.
Dan Hughes, the Silver Stars coach, credited Wright as the game changer;
“We had a hard time containing (Wright),'' Hughes said. “She got in the lane on us and not only finished, but created plays. She was the player that kind of broke our back.''
With the win, Seattle rolled onto a three game winning streak. Strom had 5 players in double scoring figures and Brian Agler the Storm coach credited the team effort after the game;
“We were sharing the ball,'' Storm coach Brian Agler said. “Good to see our whole team being aggressive on the offensive end.”
Katie Smith netted 13 points and Camille Little had 12 for Storm. Reserve Tina Thompson came up with 12 points and 9 boards, barely missing her double-double, while centre Ann Wauters recorded 11. Sue Bird chipped in with 10 points
in Seattle’s 4th victory of WNBA’s 16th season.
On the other hand, Silver Stars were brilliant from the charity stripe at 93.1%. They were marshalled by Jia Perkins as she scored 20 points while forward Sophia Young had 16. Becky Hammon dropped 14 points and handed out 6 assists
but couldn’t help her team avert the 5th loss of this season.
The game started evenly as early in the opening frame and the scores were tied at 5 apiece. San Antonio pulled of a 7-2 spree and kept the Storm at bay afterwards to conclude the segment with a 17-11 lead.
Storm played aggressively in the 2nd period and with 4:46 in hand the score was once more tied at 22 each. The game remained closely contested after wards and deep in the frame Silver Stars were having a fragile 26-24
lead. Seattle clawed that off with an 8-2 spurt and headed into the halftime with a 32-28 advantage.
Storm opened the third with a 9-0 burst and widened the gap to 41-28 but Silver Stars managed to trim down the lead to 43-40. Shekinna Stricklen came up with a layup that was followed with a pair. Thompson then netted a long-ranger
providing Storm with a double-digit 50-40 lead. However San Antonio shaved that off with a 5-nothing run, reducing the deficit to 50-45 by the end of 3rd period.
Wright stepped up big time in the decisive frame. In the last 29 seconds the Storm were having 4 points, 74-70 lead. Wright came up with 4 freebies and Perkins rebutted with a pair from down town reducing the gap to 78-76. Bird
then netted a couple from charity stripe and Wright did the icing with a layup, handing over an 82-76 defeat to the visitors.
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