Final score: Storm 82 – Silver Stars 61 (W) (11-2)

Submitted by | LaurenRules

Pre-Game
Pretty quiet. No announcements made about Agler’s 100 win, nor about Sue’s 1500th assist. Just business as usual. The Silver Stars were futzing about with their warm-up suits. Also, I noticed that Ruth Riley wasn’t traveling with the team, but both teams were listed as injury-free.

I noticed during the warm-ups what an odd lineup San Antonio has. Their posts are all very tall – Jayne Appel, Michelle Snow and Riley are 6’ 4” or 6' 5", but their guards are tiny - and, they’re very short on forwards. A really strange combination. Also, Michelle Snow is unbelievably thin – six FIVE and 158 pounds? Sheesh.

The little junior co-captains got their shirts signed, rather than a ball. One of them was wearing one of our All-Star voting shirts, but I didn’t see which one. I have to wonder about the value of an SASS player signing a “Vote Storm” shirt. Does that constitute an endorsement?

Anthem
Sung by Ashley Fitzsimmons, who is appearing at the Village Theater’s production of “The Full Monty.” Very nice, Broadway-style alto. She sung it a bit too slow, though – it’s an anthem, not a dirge.

Officials
Michael Price, Roy Gulbeyan, and Maj Forsberg. Okay, groan and groan. I suppose the best one could say is that Eric Brewton wasn’t there.

Fashion Statement
Our coaches all in outfits we’ve seen before. The award must go to former Storm player, Sandy Brondello, who looks ridiculously svelte and fit, despite just having given birth a few weeks ago. Both she and former Storm player Edwige Lawson-Wade received warm welcomes, as did Jayne Appel. Everyone else received tepid applause, even Hammon, who usually gets a nice round of applause.

First Quarter
The Storm controlled the tip, thanks to some fast footwork from our favorite small forward. Ridiculous interval when we all shot, shot, shot, but nothing went in, until Swin was finally fouled. Swish. Swish. Relieved fans sat down. The good news is that we were absolutely pounding the (taller) SASS team on the boards, not really sure why. But we basically owned them from the get-go.

SASS brought the ball up. ELW put up a three, no good. Young grabbed the rebound, but T stole the ball from her. Sue missed a three. Holdsclaw made a running jump shot. She really has flashes of such brilliance. Sloppy interval with turnovers and missed shots on both sides, including yet another steal from T. I was wondering if she was competing with Camille for the “Miss Quick Hands” award. Holdsclaw hit a layup. Agler called a twenty-second timeout to talk things over.

Lauren missed a three. Swin grabbed the rebound. Sue missed a jumper. T grabbed that rebound and fed LJ who hit a very nice bank shot. Camille had two blocks in a row, the first against Young, which looked legit, the second against Snow, which looked quite a bit like a foul from where I was sitting. T was hacked on the very next play – with no call - which really didn’t bode well for the rest of the evening.

Holdsclaw missed a jumper and Camille snagged the rebound. It’s worth noting that she had five rebounds in the first five minutes of the game, three defensive, two offensive. Some of those undoubtedly were from that ridiculous play at the beginning of the game, when we couldn’t sink a shot to save our lives, but still. Sue set up the offense, and Camille ended up putting down a THREE quite late in the shot clock. Holy cow. She blocks, she steals, she rebounds… and she can shoot the three. Crowd went nuts.

Timeout
Svelte Sandy wanted to talk things over with her peeps. Interval – the standard (and vaguely annoying) product placement on Storm fan gear from Shellie Hart and the Alaska Airlines seat upgrade. Tonight’s winner was “Bender,” a colleague of hers from the radio station, and his little daughter. The little girl wore an adorable outfit, notably featuring a pair of polka-dot stockings and pink sparkly shoes. My inner two year old coveted those shoes.

Le’coe and Svet came in for Lauren and T. Before the timeout, Camille had been whistled for a foul against Young. She hit forth free throws. Sue jacked up a horrible three point shot at the end of a shot clock and missed. ELW apparently got Sue’s shooting ability for the night and put down a three. SA back up, 9-7. Le’coe drove hard for the basket and drew a foul against Young. Swish. Swish. Lauren came in for Camille. Young scored. Le’coe had one of her wonderful, muscular under-the-basket moves and scored right back. Young missed a jumper. Svet scored with one second left on the shot clock. Woot!

Lots of missed shots on both sides. Swin hit a gorgeous three off of an incredible feed from Le’coe. It honestly is just like having seven starters, to have Svet and Le’coe come off the bench. They see where energy is needed – steals, rebounds, post moves, slashing – and they just go there and do it.

(Incidentally, I found it very interesting that last season, Coach Agler was calling the plays and this season, he’s letting Sue do it. Has anyone else noticed 1) how incredible our offense is, and 2) how boring last years’ offense was, compared to this years'? Some day, in the hopefully EXTREMELY far-off distant future, some lucky, lucky team is going to have a Coach Bird. I’ve never seen a player with the eye for the game like she has. But I digress.)

Timeout
Nice camera work on all of the signs in the arena.

Hammon hit a three. LJ missed a jumper, but Camille snagged the rebound, and put up a layup. That so should have completely been a +1 play, it’s ridiculous. She was hacked at least TWICE on that shot. T stole the ball from Hammon – her third steal thus far - and blazed down the floor to put in an easy layup.

SEA 20 – 14 SASS

Interval
Goodwill Service Announcement and Storm Dance Troupe. Having watched a few games on LiveAccess lately, I think they’re an order of magnitude better than any other dance group in the league. Maybe you just have to be there to see them in person.

Second Quarter
Quarter started out with missed shots and Camille getting hacked some more, while the Creamsicle Corps stood by and admired. Jana, however, was whistled for a foul on Holdsclaw, who put down her shot first and then hit her free throw to complete the three-point play. Lauren seemed to find that annoying – or maybe it was getting called for a ticky-tack foul. Anyway, she went on a mini-run of her own – a jumper, a steal and then zoomed down the floor, almost ending directly under the basket before she put the ball in. Storm 24-17.

Jana fouled ELW, who put down her free throws. Jana had a good look at a three, but it bounced in and out. Unfortunately, ELW hit HER three a few seconds later. SA down by four. Sue missed a three and was knocked down by Michelle Snow, who got into a bit of pushy-shovy with her, much to Sue’s evident annoyance, and she mentioned it to the ref. The very next play, Snow threw quite an obvious elbow at LJ as she came down with a rebound, and was whistled for both a foul and a technical. Happy crowd. Brondello wisely pulled Snow to give her a chance to cool down as LJ hit all three free throws. Storm back up by seven.

Svet picked up her second foul, but the Storm didn’t get mad – they forced a shot clock turnover instead, much to the glee of the fans. LJ missed a jumper, but Swin snatched the rebound (she, Camille and LJ were a combined Unstoppable Force under the basket) and put back an off-balance bank shot. She was so completely fouled, it was ridiculous. Whatever.

LJ stole the ball from Hammon, which was Hammon’s fourth turnover thus far, and passed it to Sue who passed it back for a SPECTACULAR “alley-oop” layup. Please, please, WNBA gods, that should be a Play of the Day. You haven’t even given us ONE yet. Heck, I think the last time the Storm had one of those, it was when Lauren scored on her knees back in 2007. Meanwhile, Le’coe, who had been clubbed HARD under the basket, had to come out and get her ankle taped. She was grimacing in obvious pain, but was able to come in and play hard not much later.

Interval
Nice dads and daughters tribute, featuring Lauren’s father, who was sitting courtside. Her parents are VERY tall. Matt Hasselback also got a nice ovation with his two daughters. Mayor McGinn – well, not so much.

Swin whistled for traveling, which was stupid, as she was pushed off-balance, but whatever. BH managed to hit a nice layup. She definitely is not her old self – not sure what is wrong, but she’s both less consistent and less steady than she’s been. Svet scored. Holdsclaw scored. Swin whistled for an offensive foul – another stupid call. She retaliated by hauling down a great rebound from a missed Hammon shot. Camille had a spectacular feed to a cutting LJ for two points.

The teams traded bad passes. Long scoreless interval. Sue’s basket continued to have a lid on it. Camille charged with a turnover for traveling. Okay, that was a REALLY stupid call – players were FALLING INTO HER. Timeout, Storm.

Interval
One-on-one with Dylan from the Dance Troupe and Swin. Great as Swin was, I’m not sure anything will ever truly live up to Coach Agler and his Stanky Leg. Very hard act to follow.
Appel whistled for traveling. Our smaller, slighter (mostly) team did a good job boxing her out, but in a few years, she’ll be a force to be reckoned with, especially if she gets and stays healthy. Snow, Lauren and Hammon all hit jump shots.

SEA 37 – 30 SASS

Halftime
Very cute dads and daughters dancing contest. The guy with the tiny, adorable daughter won. I must admit, some of the other dancers were better, but that little one was awfully cute, especially watching her kinda, sorta moving those tiny little feet mostly in time. Both teams in the locker room a long time.

Third Quarter
A bit of a rocky start, with Young scoring off a nice Hammon feed, Swin getting whistled for traveling (groan) and Hammon hitting a three. Just like that, SASS only down by two. Swin promptly hit a three (first ruled a two, then changed thanks to Instant Replay). Young scored and Swin scored right back. Camille scored. LJ hit a three, with a really nice feed from Sue. Just like that, Storm back up again by nine.

Timeout
SA. Cute Storm Dance Troupe segment with Dads. Some of those guys have serious moves. Very nice and very funny. Dads got a lot of love last night, deservedly so, although I wish Storm season allowed for a mothers and daughter night, too.

The Storm forced another shot clock turnover. Swin missed a layup, but Camille grabbed it and stuffed it back in. Sue whistled for a foul. I can’t remember the last time she had a foul but hadn’t scored. She looked very annoyed at herself. Snow hit both free throws.

Then, on the next play, IT happened. Sue leaped up high to snag a pass, and Lawson-Wade hit her HARD from the back and Sue went down, in obvious pain. At first, I thought she’d hit her head, because her forehead hit HARD. One hand was grabbing at her knee, the other was pounding the floor. The players and trainer were wonderful – got her off the floor, into the training room and the paramedics were right behind them.

All of the air seemed to go out of the arena for a minute there, as there seemed to be a huge black cloud of - OH, NO! IS SHE ALL RIGHT? Will she be able to play the rest of the season? What now?? – hovering on the ceiling. Yes, we were up by ten – but could we hang onto it? What would that mean for the rest of the season?

So, the cloud was there – everyone seemed really worried and distracted.

Except for the players.

And the coaches.

T came in and our gang went to work with ruthless intent. If SA thought that losing our floor general was going to faze us for a second, well, we quickly disabused them of that notion. In about half a second. I didn’t think it was even possible, but all of our players, especially T, Swin and Camille just brought it up another notch. And another. I really can’t say enough about T’s play in particular – she’s been, well, fine, lately, not great not horrible, but just, well, fine. Sunday night, after Sue got hurt, she was so focused and so intentional, I think the roof could have collapsed on her head, and she wouldn’t have noticed.

Huge props also to Svet, who slid right in and support T at the point.

Did I say our team was mentally tough? Holy cow.

Swin scored. Svet scored, twice. Appel hit a nice layup, but it did look like she traveled on the way up. Massive pileup under the basket. When it was sorted out, Lauren thought she was going to be jumping against Young, but the refs said it was Svet. Okay. Hammon got the ball, and fed Hodges, who missed a three. Rebound LJ. T hit a jumper. Appel scored again. She was really the only SA players who seemed to have gas in her tank at all. Svet missed a three, but Swin grabbed the rebound and put it back in.

Quigley missed a jumper. Rebound Swin. Appel blocked a Camille shot. Storm ball. Le’coe and Alison came in. Lauren and Swin sat. Camille hit a fadeaway jumper. Hodges scored. Camille turned the ball over, but kept her head and stole it right back from Hammon. Two lame foul calls, one on Le’coe, the other on Alison. Scattered booing. Quigley hit one free throw. Lauren, back in for Le’coe, was fouled by Frazee, and hit one of her free throws. Not a lot of scoring, but we sure dominated the boards.

SEA 62 – 46 SASS

Interval
Dads and Daughters shootout. Very cute, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention, as I was watching the entryway to see if Sue would reappear.

Fourth Quarter
The quarter started out beautifully with a gorgeous pass from T to Le’coe and an equally gorgeous Le’coe layup. Sophia Young traveled into Le’coe and Le’coe was whistled for the foul. (eye roll). It didn’t even look like a shooting foul, but it didn’t matter, since Young missed both free throws. Missed shots on both sides, and Le’coe hit a turnaround bank shot. It looked as if Holdsclaw fouled her, but no call. More missed shots. Ball knocked out of bounds. Vaguely amusing “HUH?” interval on the part of the Creamsicle Corps, as they couldn’t figure out who had possession, eventually awarded to Storm.

Le’coe fouled Holdsclaw who hit one of two. Lauren sat and Camille came back in. Camille and Swin had two FABULOUS possessions right in a row (interspersed with a Holdsclaw layup), where Camille went up as if she was shooting and dished to Swin, who sank both shots. Crowd happy. Snow hit two layups in a row, the second off of her own steal. Storm still up by seventeen. Tanisha missed a jumper and Hammon ended up diving, quite dramatically into the press row – not sure what that was about.

Timeout
Ride the Train.

In the true Creamsicle tradition of cooling down hot players, Camille whistled for an offensive foul. Agler ENRAGED, up and shouting. However, the fans’ irate mood shortly turned to joy as Sue returned, sporting a wan smile and an ENORMOUS icepack on her left knee. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. Perhaps inspired by this, Camille soared above the basket to grab a rebound from Svet’s missed jumper, and put it back in. Happy fans.

Holdslcaw missed a jumper. Lauren snagged the rebound and passed it to T, who set up the offense, eventually feeding Swin, who sunk a beautiful layup. Svet fouled a frustrated Hammon, who sunk both free throws. The bench started to come in. Free throw fest for a bit – Camille hit two after drawing a foul on Darling, Swin hit two after drawing a foul on Young; Darling hit one after drawing a foul on Alison.

Timeout
Amusing sequence with Matt Hasselback, a former Seahawk, Doppler and Doppler’s assistant playing football. The former Seahawk picked up Jason and held him over his head. T-shirt toss.

Bench came in. A-Rob had a gorgeous block and a rebound. Appel scored. Svet fed Le’coe for a really nice layup. Frazee missed a three. Alison grabbed the rebound and managed to score her first-ever field goal, a crazy bank shot that actually went in. Bench, especially LJ were up and applauding. (Sue was still sitting, though). Le’coe picked up her third foul against Appel, who sank a free throw. Frazee finally scored her first bucket of the game, and Alison dribbled out the clock.

Final score: SEA 82 – 61 SASS

Notes
Really strong game - I just hope, hope, hope Sue's knee is okay!

San Antonio really needs to work on their free throw shooting. They gave up lots of easy points.

Is our defense that good or is their offense that bad? Snow and Holdsclaw got a little something here and there, but Hammon was really a non-factor, except for a few moments of brilliance. Young used to give us fits, but no more. Megan Frazee used to give us and everyone else fits, but she was also a non-factor. As for Darling - what happened to her? Did she score at all?

I really can't say enough about everyone's mental toughness, though, ESPECIALLY Tanisha's. She doesn't like playing point, she hasn't been playing as well as she knows she can - but she came in, ran the offense, picked up six assists and added another mark in the Win column. Way to go, T!

Also, I thought Swin and Camille should have shared the player of the game for that one, because they really seemed to act as one, especially in the fourth quarter. It's enough to have you believing in telepathy.

Abby put up some nice shots during garbage time. I'm glad she's shooting. Jana a curious non-factor, which was a bit of a surprise. I loved both Alison's shot and the crazy fan reaction.

T and Svet really did such a great job shutting down Hammon. She didn't play like herself at all.

Way to go EVERYONE. Time to get ready for Indiana.

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