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Friday, Jun. 23 9:00pm ET
Fire end six-game losing skid | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Portland Fire finally held onto a lead late into a game. And that determination led to a rare and long overdue victory. Sylvia Crawley had 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Portland Fire stopped a six-game losing streak with a 72-61 victory over the Seattle Storm on Friday night. Tully Bevilaqua and Stacey Thomas each added 11 points for the Fire (2-7), who opened the second half with a 12-2 run and were never really threatened. Both of the Fire's wins this year have come against the Storm, and three of their seven losses have gone to overtime. "Tonight we learned how to win," Crawley said. "We learned a lot from those games -- how to not turn the ball over, to play with confidence, to gain a lead and hold it. We put it together." Katrina Hibbert scored 17 to lead Seattle, which lost its fourth straight. "We didn't come out with a lot of energy," Seattle coach Lin Bunn said. "We did not do a good job of fighting to keep the ball away from Crawley." The Fire's second-half burst was sparked by six points from Crawley and stifling defense that held Seattle to just two points in the first seven minutes. "That's what usually happens to us -- tonight the tables were turned," Sophia Witherspoon said. The Storm responded with a 10-0 run, capped by a Sonja Henning's layup that cut the Fire's lead to 54-45. But Portland squelched that rally with a 5-0 run. Hibbert's late 3-pointer got the Storm within seven, but Portland made its free throws and Thomas made a steal with less than a minute to play to seal it. "That's what the coaches have been preaching and yelling at us about: the little things," Thomas said. "Get some steals, defend, don't turn the ball over. Those are the things we did tonight." Portland started the game on a 14-3 run and led 23-9 before Seattle made a run to cut the lead 32-31 when Kamila Vodichkova hit a hook shot with 1:32 left. On the next play, Witherspoon found Tara Williams for a 3-pointer, then drove for a lay-up as the Fire took a 37-31 lead into halftime. "We didn't ever want to dwell on those losses, but tonight was the first we really drew on them," Portland coach Linda Hargrove said. "We needed this so badly, it definitely gave us a shot in the arm." | ALSO SEE WNBA Scoreboard RECAPS Los Angeles 68 Miami 54
Portland 72
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