Final score: Storm 80 – Sky 60 (W) (22-2)

Submitted by | LaurenRules

Officials
Roy Gulbeyan, Tom Mauer, and Penny Davis

Attendance
7,749

Fashion Notes
Agler casual again in a red T-shirt this time and black pants. Nancy and Jenny evidently called each other, because both were wearing various shades of turquoise –Nancy with a gray suit and Jenny with black pants. Steve Key wins the award for his medium-gray suit and striped tie.

Anthem
Washington State Lottery’s Match 4 – a three-man ensemble in bright yellow shirts. Harmony wandered a bit, and the guy with the high notes strained a bit, although he did well when he went up into falsetto.

Pre-Game
Alison has discarded the bun and is wearing her hair in a ponytail. Seattle now has three guards with long, brown hair and high cheekbones. A-Rob’s hair is growing out a bit, which I prefer to the hawk. Le’coe was wearing a monster brace on her knee, but otherwise looked fine.

Lots of nice signs, including one from a fan asking Ashley to marry him.

First Quarter
Seattle whistled for a jump ball violation. Chicago ball. Fowles drove, drawing a foul from Camille, but split her free throws. Swin put down a three of off a really nice feed from Lauren. Camille stole the ball from Canty, went coast-to-coast on a layup. Mistie Bass put up a layup, but Swin blocked it and the Storm forced a shot clock turnover. Lauren missed a three. Bass grabbed the rebound and got it to Jia Perkins, who put down a jumper. Lots of turnovers and steals. Tanisha finally got the ball and kept the ball, feeding Swin who sank a layup. Bass tried to hit a jumper. No go. Sue fed Camille for a three. 10-3 Storm.

Camille picked up her second foul, against Fowles who split her free throws again. Lauren floated a jumper and missed, but Camille tipped it back in, highlight-reel style. Canty scored. Shay Murphy called for holding. LJ whistled for an offensive foul. Excellent pressure defense by Storm.

Timeout
More product placement (A Seattle Storm basketball-textured shirt. Mmmmkay), and the Alaska Airlines seat upgrade. It was their first game. I hope they liked it.

Svet turned the ball over. Perkins scored. Racing the other way, Svet fed LJ, who hit a jumper. Bass tried to hit a jumper of her own, missed. Rebound Le’coe. For having one of the most dominant post players in the world, the Sky don’t rebound all that well. I was surprised. Svet hit a jumper, off a nice feed from Swin. Sue missed a three. Le’coe did an OUTSTANDING job boxing out SF. MAN, she’s strong. Seattle ball. Swin made a layup, off of a sweet inbounds play from Sue, much like the one in the Phoenix game. Lots of missed shots. Lauren fed Swin for a three. More good defense.

Shay Murphy put up a jump shot, but A-Rob (in for Le’coe) blocked it. I don’t think that’s the play Key wanted. Swin fouled Cathrine Kraayveld. Odd not to see her in a Liberty uniform. CK missed both shots. She looks very tentative out there, obviously this new team doesn’t agree with her much. Swin got the board. Seattle set up the offense and Svet fed Lauren for a three. SF scored on a driving layup, but Lauren answered her right back with a turnaround jump shot, and an “and one” after a foul from Prince. SM hit a three and LJ missed one.

SEA 27 – 13 CHI

Interval
Storm Dance Troupe

Second Quarter
Le’coe missed a jump shot, but the Storm got the rebound and Sue sank a three. Prince drove and scored, hitting a free throw off of an A-Rob foul. Ashley, however, stole the ball from her a few seconds later (yes!) and got the ball to Sue who fed Le’coe for a layup. Prince missed a jumper. Jana got the rebound, but missed a jumper of her own. She stole the ball back a bit later, and got it to Sue, who fed a zooming Svet – she blazed right past Kraayveld, who had position, and sank a GORGEOUS highlight-reel reverse layup.

Ashley fouled SF, who split her free throws again. The Sky made the mistake of leaving Sue open and she sank a beautiful three. CK turned the ball over. Missed shot. I thought Camille got hacked, but I think Tom Mauer hates her for some reason. Lauren blocked Tamera Young’s shot, but was called on a foul. (eye roll). TY hit both free throws. 37-19.

Camille turned the ball over, but the Sky couldn’t convert. Jana grabbed the board and fed Sue. She and Lauren ran the floor and Sue sent her a no-look pass. Lauren hit the running layup.

Timeout
One-on-one with Camille and Julie from the Storm Dance Troupe. They have a fair amount in common, including their favorite dance move. It was cute, but I’m not sure if anything will ever equal Agler’s “stanky leg.” Some past Women of Inspiration honorees were acknowledged.

Camille picked up her third foul. Canty scored. They left Sue open again and she hit another three! Wooot! Fowles hit a layup, but couldn’t convert the three-point play off of a Lauren foul (her third). Le’coe hit a layup off of a Lauren pass. Canty scored again. Lauren hit a turnaround jumper. Both she and Agler were annoyed she didn’t get the foul call.

Timeout
Half-court shot. The poor guy wasn’t even close. Ouch.

TY missed a shot and Tanisha snagged the rebound. TY fouled Swin who hit both free throws. Bass threw the ball out of bounds. Le’coe teed up a three, but missed. A-Rob grabbed a SWEET rebound with her toes on the baseline and got it Le’coe behind her who put down a layup. Fowles hit a very nice fadeway jumper. Coming the other way, Sue worked the shot clock until it was down to about four seconds and fed A-Rob, who hit as nice as a turnaround jumper as I’ve seen. Fans ERUPTED. She’s definitely a favorite – and it was a pleasure to see her playing so well.

The Creamsicle Corps evidently decided they didn’t like the way Seattle was running away with the game, and called fouls on Swin and Le’coe. SF and TY both made their free throws. After a quiet first half offensively, T found her stroke and dropped a GORGEOUS three to end the half.

SEA 55 – 31 CHI

Halftime
Women of Inspiration. Very nice celebration. It was odd that there were only three honorees – I remember other years with quite a few more. Our three-point count is up to 180 – including EIGHT made last night. Next game is the teddy-bear toss.

Halftime statistics – we were killing them from the perimeter and on shooting percentage. They also only had four assists and we had nineteen. The free throw shooting was ridiculous – they were 10/16 and we were 3/3. Really, refs? Really?

Third Quarter
Lots of missed shots. DC finally hit a layup. Swin hit a running jump shot. Camille fouled by Bass, split her free throws. Bass missed a jumper shot. LJ grabbed the board, and she and Sue were off and running. Sue fed Camille for a driving layup. Murphy hit a three. Awesome defense by Lauren and Camille on SF, who was not happy with life just then. Swin and Lauren whistled for traveling on two subsequent possessions. Tanisha apparently fouled DC, who split her free throws. SF got the board, but they couldn’t convert. Lots of contact under the basket, but a foul was called on Camille. Grrrr.

Timeout
Trivia Challenge about mortgages

Bass hit both free throws. Svet tried to hit a three, but Bass blocked it. Shot clock violation on us. Ugh. Just when it seemed as though our offense was cooling off, Svet stole the ball from Murphy, and knocked it out of bounds on her. On the inbounds play, Swin sent a bullet pass right into Lauren’s hands and she put down a layup. Fowles considerately tossed the ball out of bounds, and Swin blazed right by four Sky defenders to hit a running layup shot.

Lots of fouls (primarily on us) and missed shots. JP and CK each split their free throws. Audience getting restive, annoyed. Lots of booing and grumbling. Why does Penny Davis hate us? Why does Tom Mauer hate Camille? Le’coe cheered everyone up by squaring off and hitting a VERY nice three. Crowd happy again. 67-41 Storm.

Fowles scored. CK hit a three. Svet hit a jumper. Prince hit a three. Svet answered her right back with a three of her own.

SEA 72 – 49 CHI

Interval
Movie Magic. Tanisha Wright, starring in “Napoleon Dynamite.” Very funny. She was even laughing a bit, as she hid her face in a towel. What good sports they are.

Fourth Quarter
SM missed a jumper. Le’coe grabbed the board. Christi Thomas picked up two fouls in quick success, the second when Svet drove right at her. Sneaky, Svet. I like that. Prince missed a jumper and Le’coe boxed out, feeding Svet, who hit a jumper. Sue missed a three. Jana grabbed the rebound. Camille missed a layup (and was TOTALLY fouled, but no whistle. Idiots). Prince scored at the very end of the shot clock. Sue hit a jumper. CK hit a three. If I were Key, I’d be doing whatever I could to make her comfortable and happy, because she seems like the best perimeter shooter they have.

Timeout
Ride the Train. Bench in.

TY put up a jumper, but A-Rob spiked it into about the fifteenth row. TY scored. Lots of missed shots. Nice block by Alison. Nice rebound by Abby. T hit a step back jumper. Young hit another jumper. More missed shot. A-Rob blocked Young again. Abby picked up three fouls in a hurry. Prince hit her last two free throws.

Final score: SEA 80 – 60 CHI

Notes
As others mentioned, if their outside shots feel, we’d have been in trouble. But they really didn’t get going. They also threw away a LOT of points from the free throw line.

Huge extra props to our posts, especially Lauren and Camille, who did suhch a great job shutting down Fowles. She was very quiet last night.

Great to see the starters getting LOTS of rest.

Fans were very excited, very LOUD, although the intensity dropped off as the game went on.

Truly a team win – Camille excelled in the beginning of the game, Sue ran the floor (eight assists?) and sent up those threes and Swin, Le’coe and LJ were monsters under the boards.

A-Rob was the Player of the Game. It doesn’t translate as well on TV, but she was just incandescently happy. When the Storm staff person told her, she laughed, but by the time Dick got to her, she was glowing. She’s always reminded me of those Olympic athletes whose goal is to just go and compete – you know, the guy who is last in the 800 meters by about 10 seconds or the ski jumpers who never make it out of qualifying. Well, last night, A-Rob had her MVP moment – to be Player of the Game on this Storm team – and it was just really wonderful to be in the presence of someone who was having a moment like that. <sniff!> Well - I was moved.

Plus, she just played well. An assist, a steal, three blocks, two rebounds and NO turnovers – and two points. Great game, A-Rob.

Rest up, ladies! Time to take on the Lynx.

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