Final score: Storm 70 – Miracle 63 (W) (4-2)

Attendance | 3873

Anthem Xtra Notes | Two too many

Anthem High Note | Extra high

Anthem Style | Over the top

Fan Noise | Disappointing

Signs | Big ones

Fan Psyche | Slow to waken

Halftime | Go little purple dog!

The Storm are now 4-2 and have another record setting night. Semeka Randall scores the most points in a game for a Storm player (28) and Simone Edwards hauls in a career-high 14 rebounds. After winning a great game in Utah (you may think that they barely won, or nearly gave it away, but we’re of the “half-full” type here at stormfans.org – a W is a W), we weren’t sure what to expect tonight. After all, they came in after an emotional win at Indiana and played very flat at home against the Sol.

Things start on a good note, mostly. The singer (yeah, this is a pet peeve if you haven’t guessed) added more notes to the anthem than were originally in the song to begin with. We give her credit though, she is working it pretty well until she gets to the “rockets red GLARE.” Ouch. “Bombs bursting in AIR.“ Yikes. Man, she blew those two. And, as our row mates asked, “Who dresses these people?” We’ll leave it at that.

The game starts off promisingly. The Storm jump out to a nice lead and seem to be picking up where they left off in Utah. The crowd is into it at the start, but then the team starts to lose steam, and so does the crowd. Just under 4,000 show up tonight. Yes, it is a Tuesday night, but come on people – we have a game to win. And let’s face it, when was the last time the Storm were 3-2. NEVER. Believe us when we say that the days of 6-26 records are behind this team. When they are “on,” this is an exciting bunch to watch (and they are “on” more often than not).

The Miracle claw their way back into the game, and although the Storm lead at the half, it seems that Orlando is taking a momentum boost into the locker room. When the Storm leave the floor, they don’t look too happy.

The halftime entertainment are the run and jump dogs, always a crowd pleaser. We think the competition is “fixed,” no pun intended, but the team with the little Corgi dog seems to win each time they perform. One of the first half timeout entertainments is a Starbucks Espresso Shot contest between two guys. All we have to say is, “Wellington (the second shooter), dude, you’ve got an ugly shot.” And by the way, yes, Starbucks owns a piece of the Storm, but does every timeout contest have to be Starbucks something or other? We get it already. Cripes, you people are on every corner in Western Washington. We aren’t going to forget your name.

Back to the game. The crowd is in a coma or something. Even the PA music is quieter than usual. It seems like the only noise is coming from us and the Loud Guy who sits in the east side courtside seats (and the girl behind us that got the blimp certificate – Starbucks again, isn’t branding great?).

The Storm stay flat and the Miracle bring it on. Our players are standing around a lot and their passes are getting picked off. If we had a scoreboard that kept track of stats like points in the paint, it feels like we’d have a goose-egg. Orlando is double- and triple-teaming who ever is in the post. Everything for Seattle is coming from the perimeter.

This is not to say there aren’t flashes of brilliance. During the lull, Jamie Redd drives aggressively to the basket on 2 or 3 occasions. Stacey Lovelace hits a couple of great shots that holds off the Miracle from taking the lead. Their energy starts to get the crowd going, and then the defense picks up. Before we know it, the team is back to tipping passes, contesting rebounds (Simone did get 14 after all), and stealing the ball.

In a way, this is all a great sign. The Storm are showing poise, the ability to hold off an opponent, and the ability to work through a scoring drought by playing strong defense. You might say, like the Utah game, the Storm almost let this one get away. We say that they held off a strong comeback and won a tight game.

After the game, Simone comes out for the postgame interview with David Locke. She is surprised to hear that she had a career rebounding night. She attributes it to the fact that her Mother is in town and cooked her some real Jamaican food. It made her jump higher.

We all could do with some Jamaican home cooking.

Notes:

Overheard from Shelley, our row mate, “Only in Seattle is a salad and a glass of wine considered stadium food,” after seeing someone with said vittles in hand.

Katrina Hibbert was seen after the game wearing a heavy-duty brace on one of her hands.

Coach Daugherty from the UW was in attendance, as reported by stormfan Laura: "I couldn’t find quite the right Storm t-shirt I wanted to wear, so I dug out my Husky women’s basketball shirt (you’d think it would be in tatters after this past season). Just before the game who walks down our aisle but Husky women’s Coach June Daugherty. I hollered at her, 'Hey Coach, look look look' pointing to my shirt. She came over and gave me a big high five and asked where I had gotten it. I said, 'At the Husky games – I went to all of them!' She thanked me. ;-) "