Submitted by | Shobe

About the game:
 
Sue got it right.  "If we'd won this game, it would be because we had to gut it out and find a way to win, it wouldn't have been because we played well."
 
Actually, Lauren put it more succinctly, "We need to work on our half court offense.  We're a wreck right now."
 
The first 10-15minutes of the game was the worst basketball the Storm has played all year.  The team just looked discombobulated in the new surroundings.  I knew they would have problems with depth perception in this new venue, and it appeared they did.
 
During this 10 minutes, the Liberty was constantly beating the Storm on the offensive and defensive rebounds.  It got to a point where it did not seem anyone wanted to step up and take the shot.
 
With some 9 minutes left in the first half, the Storm had missed 16 of 21 shots.
 
Hell, LJ did not even touch the ball until 3 1/2 minutes had gone by at the start of the game.  Her first field goal did not come until six minutes into the game when Ann had to call a play specifically desingned for Lauren.
 
The Storm still managed to pull it together in the final five minutes of the half,  and turn it into a game. They even took took a 67-62 into the last five minutes to see it all fall apart, when they scored only three points in the final five minutes.  This was when New York's Becky Hamilton scored nine of her game high 15 points.  The Liberty's center Baranova was busting threes all night and would up with 13 pts.
 
Horrifying stat of the game: Lauren went a strech of 17 minutes where she only got off one shot.  She ended with a non-MVP night scoring only 12 points.
 
Could the Storm  have won this game at the Key considering how poorly they played?  When they had the lead going into the last five minutes, I think the home crowd could have provided the energy for the team to bring it home. Also, they would not have had to deal with distractors like sleeping on cots the night before.
 
About The Spokane Experience:
 
Well, lets start with the postive, the bus ride over was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.  It was great getting to meet and talk to Storm season ticker holder that I have not met before.  It was wonderful sharing with our new friends how we all became season ticket holders, and what particular memory we hold most dear of the last five season.
 
We got to see the Storm's 2003 highlight video played on the busses monitors when we pulled out of Bellevue.  We were all cheering like we did during the actual games.
 
It turns out there was only one bus, and not three, that drove us to Spokane.  The one bus picked up the fans in Federal Way, then went to Northgate, and finally picked us up at the Eastgate Park and Ride to venture over east of the mountains.
 
I got to meet  FaninNY on the ride.  She was the only one cheering on the Liberty, and she was not shy about it.  Please NY, keep posting on this board.  You have a really unique and valuble knowledge of womens basketball that I'm sure we would all love you to share.
 
Thanks to The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, AC-DC, Joan Osborne, and other for keeping me company on my portable CD player on the five hour ride.  By the time we got to Moses Lake, our tour of rural America got me in a punk mode, so thank you The Sex Pistols and The Clash for getting me through this.
 
As we pulled into Spokane, there were three on three basketball courts all over the streets and intersections.  I could  not help recall that two years ago when Hoopfest was in Seattle, they got all the courts into the parking lot of Seahawks Stadium.
 
Hey StormFan 50, I know you were busting at the seams to talk to me about Fahrenheit 9/11, well I saw it last night, and will have my review posted tomorrow.
 
The Spokane Arena is a hockey rink trying to pass itself off as a basketball venue.  Our seats had us staring at a concrete floor stratight ahead of us, while the court, was off to our right side.  If you wanted to see the court, you had to sit in your chair at  a 90% angle.  It was like when you sat along the first and third base lines along the Kingdome, and had to turn to see home plate.
 
I was ready to bolt for better seats, when the Storm's Sarah Child's showed up and gave us all seat upgrades.  Now we got our seats directly behind the Storm's bench.  Thanks for being a hero, Sarah.
 
Where were you Spokane?  You would think out of curiosity, some people would have walked in off the streets to see the game.  I mean there is no night life in Spokane on a Saturday, so what else was there to do?  Hell, on the bus ride home from the game (we left at 9:20), the whole town was shut down.  
 
The attendace had to be padded to get the total get number to 4,527.  In my area it was dead quite, almost like a masolium.  How disheatening this must have been for the Storm.  Congrats to the Stormies who made the trip, or the team would have not gotten any love.
 
I know this state is practicaly divided into east and west, and the eastern half of the state is resentful for what they percieve as preferential treatment that is given to Seattle by the state legislature, but could an anti-Seattle bias played any role in the small turnout?  Maybe they were not going to support anything with Seattle attached to it.
 
Since the Sonic Dance Team was performing, why did they come out wearing Sonics jersies?  Since this event was to raise  public awareness of the Storm in Eastern Washington, you think maybe they could have worn Storm jersies?  
 
That said, can we get the Sonics Dance Team to perform at the Sonics games?  That is with the required Storm gear.
 
The bus ride home was long.  By the time we got to Ellensburgh, I was going out of my mind with travel fatigue, especially knowing we had at least one more hour of riding ahead of us.
 
Before the game, Lauren said that she has never been to Spokane, but she was told it was beautiful.
 
Someone was pulling LJ's leg.

1 | 2 | 3