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Friday, Jul. 21 10:00pm ET
Seattle 67, Minnesota 61 | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Sonja Henning scored 13 of her career-high 15 points in the first half as the expansion Seattle Storm survived a late rally to snap their six-game losing streak, 67-61 over the fading Minnesota Lynx. Henning scored six points during a 14-4 run as the Storm opened a 37-23 lead with 95 seconds left in the first half. Seattle shot 61 percent (14-of-23) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and led, 40-27. Minnesota trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half but scored eight straight to close to 63-55 with 94 seconds remaining. Katie Smith's 3-pointer capped the spurt and Kristin Folkl's layup brought the Lynx within 64-59 with 40 seconds to play. But Henning and rookie Kamila Vodichkova each nailed a free throw as the Storm snapped their seven-game home skid. Seattle won despite hitting just 5-of-16 from the line over the last five minutes. "Just open looks. ... That's really all it was," Henning said. "I think they're a great defensive team, but they often over rotate towards the ball and we did a great job of kicking it out and finding the open person." Minnesota (10-13) suffered its team-record eighth straight loss and continued what has been a month-long swoon. The Lynx closed an 0-5 road trip and have not won overall since July 2 against Portland. "I thought Seattle put a very good team on the floor tonight," Lynx coach Brian Agler said. "We've really been struggling and having a young team like we do, sometimes they give in. But we haven't yet and I don't think we will." Edna Campbell scored 17 points before being ejected and Charisse Sampson chipped in 10 for Seattle, which shot 51 percent (22-of-43) from the floor and overcame a 14-of-34 effort from the line. "The fact that we got to the free throw line 34 times was huge," Storm coach Lin Dunn said. "I thought we did a good job on our offense moving the ball around and anytime you shoot 51 percent from the field and get 34 free throws, you need to win." Smith scored 20 points and Folkl added 11 and 12 rebounds off the bench for the Lynx, who trail Sacramento by four games for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They are three games under .500 for the first time since they were 14-17 on August 20 of last season. "We didn't hang our heads after the slow start," Smith said. "Teams aren't going to give it to you. They make you earn it. We love to compete and have a lot of pride, so we'll put it together somehow."
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Seattle 67
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