Final score: Storm 79 – Lynx 76 (W) (2-0)

Submitted by | LaurenRules

Anthem
Lovely choral rendition by the Seattle Girls Choir, who actually sounded like they knew what they were singing about. Plus – final consonants!

First Quarter
Minnesota won the tip, and Monica Wright scored the first two minutes of the game. Are we sure this woman is a rookie? Holy cow, she was everywhere last night, scoring like a complete lunatic, zooming around the floor, leaving T in the dust. We quickly retaliated with a made basket by LJ and we all got to sit down. Fairly even interval for a while, with a very pretty three from and an AWESOME block from LJ. Minny pulled ahead, but T hit a very nice three to even us up. With about four minutes to go, Svet and Le’coe came in and Minnesota took advantage of their inexperience to go on a nine-point run, led by Lindsay Whalen – who is very pale. Even the delight of seeing Sue block Anosike – just HOW did she do that? – didn’t really help.

SEA 16 – 23 MIN

During a timeout, we got a cute one-on-one interview with Alison Lacey, done by a member of the Storm Dance Troupe. Among other things, we discovered that her dream car is a Range Rover, she likes the Bravo TV network, and her favorite dance move is the shimmy. The interview ended with both her and the Dance Troupe member demonstrating the shimmy.

Second Quarter
The quarter started unpleasantly, with Anosike scoring and drawing a foul against Tanisha, for a three-point play. Camille hit a layup and drew a foul against Maiga-Ba for her own three point play. Phew, but Storm still down by seven. Bird and Houston traded jumpers. Lead the same. A few fast break attempts didn’t lead to anything. As noted in other game reports, what looked to be a thrown elbow from LW ended up being called as a foul on Alison Lacey, which ignited the crowd and not in a good way. Boos rang the rafters. MW hit a three and we were down by 10. Worrisome. Camille calmly drove to the basket, drawing a second foul on Maiga-Ba, sending herself to the line and Maiga-Ba to the bench. Swish. Swish. Nibbling away at that lead.

Two minute Battle of the Free Throws ensued, with no one able to land a shot, and the refs whistling everything that moved. When the dust settled, Minnesota was ahead by eleven. Swin went on a mini-run of her own, scoring two field goals, MW made a bucket and T hit another three (GO T!!!!). Storm within six. Anosike threw an elbow at LJ’s head and was promptly whistled for a T. This happens extremely rarely, but props to the refs for that one. LJ hit and Swin hit two more free throws and, suddenly we were within one point. Crowd started getting very excited.

Sadly, the technical didn’t seem to faze Anosike, who went on to grab three rebounds and hit two free throws off of a foul from Lauren. Whalen hit a layup. Le’coe tried to hit a final shot, but Lynx players were draped all over her, grabbing her arm. The team was incensed. When the halftime buzzer went, even Sue was yelling at the refs, rather than heading for the locker room.

SEA 40 – 45 MIN

Halftime Interval
Dancing with the Storm. Two cute little kids, a teenager and an adult woman dancing with various members of the Storm Dance Troupe. One of the little kids (who was dancing with Doppler) and the adult woman (who was dancing with the Storm Dance Troupe member) won. Doppler’s assistant was wearing a dog costume under his coverall. I’d say you really had to be there, but, well, anyway. They showed the cute announcement about the Sue bobblehead doll again.

The team was in the locker room until the last minute and came straight out and hit the floor. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

Third Quarter
This was much like the second quarter, minus the technical and arm-grabbing controversy. They put together a small run (only four points, thank God) and we were left standing until the 7:00 mark. However, when we finally got to sit, it was on a beautiful 3-point shot from Lauren. Phew. Superb LJ defense forced a turnover on Anosike – traveling – and we got the ball back.

Unfortunately, Sue threw it away in the next play and Houston scored a three, DARN HER. She’s a heck of a player, despite those ridiculous rolled short shorts. Every time I see her, she has different hair, too – yesterday, it was this sort of dark gold color, straightened in a ponytail. Whatever one thinks of her fashion sense, she sure can shoot.

Sue missed a three, looked annoyed at herself, and then promptly picked Whalen’s pocket, feeding Camille who missed a layup, grabbed the rebound and put it back. Swin and Camille both scored. Storm within three. Crowd was beginning to get excited. McCants hit a jumper and MWright hit two free throws off foul from T – and just like that we were down by seven again. Grrr. Lauren missed a jump shot, was whistled for her third foul, looked annoyed and proceeded to lay down a beauty of a block on MWright. Once again, Swin took it upon herself to get us back in the game, scoring twice in thirty seconds, including a gorgeous end-to-end layup. Sadly, we let up in the last thirty seconds, allowing Anosike to hit a jumper. Le’coe tried to score but Anosike stuffed her. Quarter ended.

SEA 55 – 60 MIN

Interval
Cute little “shoe scramble” involving Doppler, a bunch of kids’ shoes and a made layup. He basically took all of their shoes to the far end of the court. They had to run all of the way down there, put on their shoes and the first one to make a layup won. Not surprisingly, the leaders were two little girls in clogs, who were zooming down the floor while the others were still messing around with their shoelaces, and one of them won.

Fourth Quarter
Quarter began with buckets from MWright and Le’coe (yay! Bench points!) and then a long dry spell. More points traded, but then Swin and Lauren each hit threes, putting us within two, and the crowd went nuts. McCants managed to drop four points during the same interval, but then we forced a shot clock violation and the crowd went CRAZY. Second game of the season and it felt as if we were in the playoffs. Camille scored, tying the game. Maiga-Ba scored. Sue hit two free throws. Tied again. MW missed a shot. CAMILLE HIT A THREE, on Sue’s TENTH assist. Storm ahead for first time since the two-minute mark! Everyone screaming, and their feet. Two minutes to go.

Double fouls called on T (fourth) and Anosike (second). There’s no way Anosike had just two fouls at the point in the game, that’s ridiculous. Lauren whistled for a foul on Whalen. Idiot refs. Booing again. Whalen sank both FTs. Storm up by ONE. Swin drew a foul from Anosike, hit both FTs. Storm up by three again. Anosike hit a jumper. Storm up by one. What is this, the Battle of the Wily Veterans? Swin hit a jumper. Not so fast! Anosike scored AGAIN, with thirty seconds ago. Still a two-possession game, Storm up by one.

Sue ran the play, feeding Camille, as the clock ran down. She missed a jumper. That probably should have been a foul, but, fortunately, LJ grabbed the rebound, took a weird, off-balance shot and put it home. Eight seconds to go! Timeout Minnesota. My heart turned over, remembering what we did to LA with just a little more time than that (and a bigger lead) last year. But never mind. We had a foul to give, and Sue gave it – fouling Whalen and taking two more seconds off of the clock. Houston put up a final shot, it didn’t go in, and that was that!

Final score: SEA 79 – 76 MIN

Notes
Still no play from Bishop or Vesala. I couldn’t help but wonder if A-Walk might not have been able to come slashing in off of the bench and make a difference earlier.

Le’coe is starting to gel with Agler’s system and was in for over fifteen minutes. She was the only bench player to get a plus-rating, although Alison and Svet were only in for five minutes and A-Rob was only in for four. All of the bench players put up at least one shot, so they know they need to score.

Whalen is a very good point guard, and, annoyed as I was at the time, did a great job of slowing down the game and forcing us to play at their pace. She also did something interesting, where she’d wait for our defense to get set and then manage to run a play and score.

Monica Wright is seriously fast on her feet. I half expected to see her wearing those little winged shoes that messenger god wears, although I agree she probably won't have that kind of impact after other teams get ready for her.

Glad we took that one. If I were a Minnesota fan, I'd be quite bummed. Guess if you drop the hammer, you have to make sure that it stays dropped.
It seems like there's a lot of parity in the league this year. I think our success will really boil down to who stays healthy, so I hope our bench gets up to speed PRONTO.

One more funny thing - as we left the arena, we walked into - of all things - quite a bad storm, with wind and vertical raindrops. How apropos.

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