Final score: Storm 86 – Monarchs 60 (W) (6-6)

Attendance | 6135

Anthem Xtra Notes | Sigh

Anthem High Note | I was too distracted by the giggles from the crowd to notice

Anthem Style | Some sort of odd duet

Fan Noise | Verrrry loud

Signs | Doing better, but we need more

Fan Psyche | This is the same team that lost to Portland and Utah???

Halftime | Cheerleaders

26 points is the largest margin of victory in Storm history. This is first time in eight trys that the Storm have been able to beat the Monarchs. Every active player on the roster received playing time and every player scored. The Storm shot 47.5% from the field (and that was with Lauren going 3 for 13), 50% from the 3-point line, and outrebounded Sacramento 36 to 21. In every way, the Storm totally dominated this game.

Now you might argue that it's not appropriate to get too excited about this performance because three of the Monarchs' best players were on the bench. The Storm were supposed to win this game, and I don't even want to speculate what it would have meant if they had actually lost. But, I counter that this is professional basketball. Injuries happen to every team. Your best players are on the bench and you are in dead last in the conference? Welcome to our life. This is exactly where the Storm has ended up in each of the last two seasons. Other teams padded their records by walking on us. Now it's time for us to do a little walking.

Some of the highlights of the game:

Sue's no-look bullet passes are being caught and being turned into points. The communication, awareness and trust is starting to take hold with this group of players. It's actually pretty amazing that we have had some real fastbreaks. All of you new Storm fans out there may not realize that fastbreaks were something that the other team had, not the Storm. Now WE have fastbreaks - and ones that are successful. This is truly a new world.

Kamila is continuing her rock-solid play. She was just shy a couple rebounds of another double double. This is why she was the Storm's #1 draft pick in 2000. This is what we've been missing for two years because she has been suffering from injury and fatigue.

Lauren is still trying to find her shot, but is making up for any offensive shortcomings by playing great defense. She had 5 blocks tonight. A couple of them were emphatic to say the least. When she gets her offense back on track, she will be dominating this league like she does the WNBL.

Simone is also still having a hard time on offense. She also is having a hard time recognizing her teammates. She passed the ball to Doppler, probably seeing the uniform and not the red fur inside the uniform. Next time Doppler, take it to the hole.

Felicia is back on track and played some inspired defense. Again and again she was fighting bigger players for rebounds, getting knocked to the floor or into the photographer's row, or anticipating passes and making steals.

I don't know that I could say that anyone had an off game tonight. Amanda didn't produce like she has in the last couple of games, but she still had an okay night. Sue played as well as she has been, hitting her shots, again in the flow of the game, and had 7 assists to 2 turnovers. Kate Paye again played a lot of minutes and even though seemed to slow things down on offense a little too much, she did get two big 3-pointers that got the crowd going. Even the Big Dog got in there and ripped down a couple rebounds. Takeisha did try a 3-point shot of her own, and I've got to say that she probably ought to keep to the post area.

With all that was good tonight, who to pick for the SPoG? It's tough, but I've got to go with... Section 108. They started a "We want Michelle" chant at about 9 or 10 minutes left in the game that most of the other fans joined in on. Michelle turned a bright red. Coach Dunn didn't react very much at all. You can argue all you want about whether 3M should be the back-up to Sue instead of Kate Paye, the sorry fact is that unless she is still injured it shouldn't take a 20+ point lead before it is okay to let her play - or any of our other players for that matter. We were up big against the Fever and she only got 3 minutes. Jamie and Takeisha got zip. At least tonight, they all got some time and Coach Dunn let them finish out the game. I wonder if the chant hadn't started how long Coach Dunn would have waited to put in the bench. Section 108, this well deserved SPoG is for you.

I could go on about other things, but there is only one additional comment about the game that I want to make - what the hell happened to the refs at halftime? In the first half, they called a fairly straight up game. I can't recall a foul against either team that sticks out as being a missed call. Also, their presence wasn't obtrusive. Second half, it's like we have a whole new set of refs. They start calling everything and really get in the way of the game. Sure, some of those fouls at the beginning of the second half were legit, but they were blowing things right and left. I still can't understand how one of the sideline refs can call fouls under the basket from 30 or 40 feet away with the players' backs to them. I don't think the refs necessarily affected the outcome of this game, but they certainly disrupted the flow of it.

Notes:

The Monarchs were called for 3 technical fouls. Speculation about the T called against Coach McHugh was that the ref had enough of her fashion sense (cream puff colored jacket with cream puff colored hair) and just had to blow his whistle.

Ruthie Bolton went down after getting tied up with Kamila for a jump ball, and stayed down for a long time. I know we want to beat the Monarchs and we want them to stay in the cellar where it is cold and damp, but we also don't want to see them keep getting hurt. Hopefully she will be okay. She did come back and play the rest of the game.

Simone's shorts were nearly falling off and had to be adjusted by Adia during a timeout.

We all got our rally towels tonight. The Storm really should have done this sooner. It looked so cool to see all those towels twirling in the stands. Now if we could get some clappers or something.

Today was the 30th anniversary of the passage of Title IX. There was a nice video with Coach Dunn talking about the bad old days and how far we have come. President Bush has said that it might be time to look at Title IX, with the insinuation that it might not be needed anymore. Head coaches of men's college football teams are starting to whine more and more about having to cut back from 90 scholarships to 75 because more money is needed to support women's lacross or crew. Just because women's sports are starting to take hold and be successful is not a reason to rescind this law. It is a validation for its existence and necessity.