Final score: Storm 71 – Silver Stars 82 (L) (2-1)

Submitted by sbirdie10

This was just a bad night overall. I dont know why but this was the least fun Ive ever had at a Storm game. The loss sure didnt make it any funner. There was no way I could remember everything that happened during the game so I brought some paper to write on. Well I ended up forgetting it in my car along with my "Keep the Storm in Seattle" signs. I managed to find an extra roster and wrote some notes on the side of it. Ill elaborate as much as i can. For those who had trouble listening during the game, I hope this helps a little. So heres my game report:

I got to the AT&T Center an hour before the game (the earliest Ive ever gotten to any game in my entire life). Like I always do when I 1st get inside the arena, I went straight to look and see what was happening on the court. Sue was the only player shooting at that time. I stood there for a few minutes watching her and she looked up and saw me. I think she recognizes me. Ive been to every game when the Storm have been in San Antonio and sit right behind their bench almost every time. And my super curly hair isnt hard to forget either. Well at least I hope she does recognize me.

Anyways I started walking around the arena (where the chairs are) and Becky came out of the tunnel. Sue got up, they hugged, and they started talking about Sue's new hairdo. I like it straight and its REALLY long too. It looked like Becky liked it too.

I wanted to get a pic with Sue before she went back into the locker room. Well the usher lady stopped me and asked me for my ticket before going down to the lower level. I couldnt find it b/c I had a million things in my purse, and by the time my friend got hers, Sue had already gone in. I was not at all happy about that. I guess Ill have to wait till they come again in July for a pic.
The Storm looked relaxed during warmups and some were singing along to the music. There were a few Seattle shirts/jerseys scattered around the arena. Sue once again got the most applause when the Storm were announced.

Gametime

For the 1st couple of possessions Sue was playing defense on Marie Ferdinand-Harris. I thought that was very interesting, wondered why, and didnt really think it would work. Well turns out it didnt. Marie scored right over Sue on 2 straight possesions. Sue was no match for her and didnt guard her after that. The Storm were rushing a lot on offense at 1st. Sue tried to settle everyone down. LJ and JB were being aggressive in the 1st couple of minutes. Most of the quarter was a game of opposites. Becky had a lot of open looks and hit most of her shots. On the other hand, LJ was getting some open looks and not hitting her shots. The SS were getting a lot of easy layups b/c of Storm breakdowns on defense, and we were missing a lot of easy layups. Not acceptable. Sue was very very upset when she got called for an offensive foul. She claimed the defensive player "slid in front of her" aka was moving, and was very adament about her point to the ref. I think she had a pretty good point though. Our defense was not good and the SS kept getting layups down low. Sue was very unhappy with how the offense was running at the end of the 1st.

End of 1st quarter: 18-26

We didnt start out the 2nd quarter very well. Couple of turnovers and fouls. Tanisha was at PG when Sue was on the bench and I became a bit worried. IMO we need another backup PG. I dont like her as PG. Ill just say i thought T was kinda decent. The Storm were forcing some passes, no one got back on defense, and the SS had a couple of transition baskets. I swear our basket had a lid on it. No shots were going through the hoop. And on the defensive end we werent rotating quickly enough. I thought the Storm were looking very sluggish on both sides of the floor and the SS lead grew to 15. Sue and LJ looked very frustrated. Katie wasnt hitting anything and I noticed that Sue wasnt really looking for her shot at all.

Halftime: 30-45

I was very dissappointed at how we were playing. Shooting only 24%, the bench only scoring 2 points, and getting outscored by 12 in the paint was not good. At this time I sure hoped Coach D was giving a good speech to fire up the team.

LJ hit a 3 on the Storm's 1st possesion of the 3rd. Then JB hit a long jumper, and then Betty hit a 3 which cut the lead to 11. Very nice start. The refs started calling some ticky-tack fouls. I hate when they do that. In 1 possession we had 5 shots and couldnt hit one. That was painful to watch. JB was hitting the offensive glass hard which was good. Betty kept driving in the lane, getting in trouble, then forced shots or created a turnover. I thought she was forcing too much and should have passed it out more. Izi played pretty good tonight and hit a 3 in the middle of the quarter which cut the lead to 8. The offense was much better in this quarter. LJ hit a kinda circus shot, got fouled, and laughed when it went it b/c she couldnt believe it went in. That cut the lead to 6. We just needed some good D and some stops. Well the next posession LJ didnt help out on a screen and Shanna Crossley hit a 3 in Sue's face. Crossley was being super aggressive (the most Ive ever seen her be) and hit timely shots including another 3 on the next SS posession. The 3rd quarter didnt end on a good note.

End of 3rd quarter: 51-67

We needed one hell of a comeback. We got 2 easy layups to start the 4th off and LJ was playing strong down low. Lead soon got cut to 8. O by the way noticed 1 person who didnt show up to play? Betty. Total non-factor. I wish she had played better. We had 4 good defensive posessions in a row and I thought we could definitely come back. Then the Storm had a couple of bad defensive sequences. On rebounds, the ball was right by them and no one grabbed it. I didnt know what was going on. I realized Sue hadnt taken a shot in the 2nd half and then after I wrote that, she finally nailed her 1st 3. We then had a couple of turnovers (the SS had 14 steals!!), the SS capitalized on them, the lead blew back up to 16, and then I was thinking it was just about over with about 3 minutes left. Sue hit another 3 and then that was pretty much it. I didnt take anymore notes in the final 2 minutes but I remember that Shyra had a 3 point play and Sue and LJ were frustrated on the bench and were talking about mistakes in the game.

Final Score: 71-82

A few notes on the uniforms: I actually like the uniforms. I didnt think they were all that bad. The name below the number isnt as bad as I thought it would be. I noticed that all throughout the game (literally almost every dead ball) Sue kept messing with her jersey and how it was tucked in. I dont know why she kept doing that but I thought it was a bit interesting.

I was not pleased with the outcome but there were positives to take from this game. Well this was not as good of a night as I had hoped. But it still was awesome to see Sue and the Storm play again!