Final score: Storm 76 – Silver Stars 52 (W) (9-4)

Attendance | 6371

Anthem Watch | That's what it sounds like when they just sing the damn song and don't try to use it as an American Idol audition.

Fan Psyche | That felt a lot better.

Game Highlight | Sue shooting the lights out.

Halftime | Don't remember.

Game Photos | Game Photos (Scott Larson)

I didn't write this right after the game like I should have, so it will be short.

The highlights are that the Storm found their happy place once again and took the Silver Stars out to the KeyArena woodshed. Sue was brilliant and obviously took it upon herself to make up for Betty's lost offense. Adia played inspired defense and seemed to be everywhere during the first half getting steals, rebounds and tipping passes. Sheri came up huge as well with a double double, plus 5 assists and 3 steals. Kamila kept Dydek in check as much as anyone can on defense and went straight at her on offense (Kamila juked Margo out of her shoes on one play, but bobbled the ball on the way up unfortunately). The bench came up big as well and gave Coach Donovan some quality minutes.

The lowlights are that Michelle, Tully and Kamila all took hits and came out limping. The big injury came during the second half when Chelle Thompson came down from trying to get a rebound and hit Semeka Randall across the bridge of her nose. Semeka went down, passed out, and it took the training staffs from both teams to get her up and off the floor. On the way out, we got a good look at her nose - it was visibly broken. I see another face mask in the future.

Speaking of broken noses, Betty made an appearance on the bench during the first half, but did not come back out for the end of the game. That was probably best because she was in a lot of discomfort. I asked on the training crew about her and they said that she was nauseous and had a headache from getting her nose reset. She looked dizzy and every time people clapped or cheered, she could only hold her forehead because of the pain.

We steeled ourselves for a horrible officiating night when we saw that Lisa "The Evil Zebra Princess" Mattingly and Kurt "Fonzie" Walker were on hand. They made a couple eye-rolling calls, but otherwise called the game fairly evenly - without calling all the fouls on one team and then deciding to make for it by calling the rest of the fouls on the other team.

Still, there was room for some improvement - some gimme layups were missed and a couple of fastbreaks broke down. But, I think that might be more of a concentration issue and not anything that can't be addressed easily. When you're up by 20+, it's understandable that you might relax a bit. But if it had been any other team, those kinds of minor mental lapses could have hurt. But, on a night when the Storm hold players like Marie Ferdinand and Peewee Johnson to 10 points combined, a couple missed layups aren't that big a deal.

Other notes:

The purple courtside couch is now sponsored by Herbal Essences, so Doppler came out wearing only a bath towel and a shower cap to lead the people who won the upgrade to the couch. That was a lot of red fur and not a scene that we need to see again. Won't someone please think of the children?

LJ was sporting black shin wraps on both legs. It must have helped because she seemed more comfortable and mobile than she has recently.

Apparently, the reason Greco wears #20 is because that is the point differential the Storm need to reach before she comes in.

Several people were wearing nose bandages to show support to Betty, including a wee bandage on baby Jake's button. Someone got Betty's attention and she gave as much as a smile as she could manage.

Sheri broke off the end of the scorer's table near the end of the game when she jumped up from her chair (I can't remember if she was celebrating something good or jumping up to get after the refs). She couldn't get it to fit back on so she had to hand it back to the bench staff.

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