Storm can’t complete upset against Liberty in New York, Loyd suffers ankle sprain
By Bella Munson
Brooklyn, NY - Despite earning a fifth straight loss there was a lot to like about the Storm’s performance against the New York Liberty, namely that it was miles better than that Connecticut game. While this game ended 80-76 in favor of the Liberty they had to work hard for the win, Seattle never went away, never stopped working.
Head coach Noelle Quinn praised this hard work after the match, clearly crediting the closeness of the match to the simple fact that they worked hard. That hard work showed up on the stat sheet, particularly in offensive rebounds and second chance points that were earned from tirelessly pursuing the glass. Seattle had 17 second chance points to New York’s measly four while adding a massive 14 offensive rebounds.
Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, in her first ever WNBA start, had a fantastic game. Even though she made a couple early errors Quinn stuck with the rookie and it paid off. Fankam Mendjiadeu pulled down a team high five of those offensive rebounds, 14 total, and added 12 points all at key moments.
Seattle’s hard work also showed up on the defensive end where they made it into a gritty, choppy game, not allowing the Liberty to get into their pretty offense where they are so deadly, constantly assisting one another. As New York head coach Sandy Brondello constantly says, they want to pass up a good shot for a great shot, and that doesn’t happen if you interrupt their passing. And if you don’t, they get wide open looks. The defensive grit had them with a slim one point lead going into halftime, 36-35.
The Storm came out with a solid third quarter, despite Jewell Loyd shooting an abysmal field goal percentage and Ezi Magbegor leaving the game with 6:29 left in the third because she picked up her fourth foul. New York went on a 10-0 run the last two minutes of the quarter and it was only broken in the final seconds. Breanna Stewart was the savior for the Liberty as she always came up with buckets when they needed and had a very efficient shooting night.
The Storm continued to keep the game relatively close but suffered a huge blow when Loyd went down after turning her ankle and was officially ruled out of the rest of the game. Long term we have to sincerely hope it is nothing more serious but the immediate effect is that Seattle had to finish the last seven minutes of this game without their star.
Immediately after the injury Seattle responded well by forcing back-to-back turnovers and scoring a two-point bucket off of each. But then Seattle’s transition defense let them down once again as Sabrina Ionescu hit a three in transition and then another one out of the media timeout.
Despite a couple buckets New York made it a ten point game, their biggest lead of the contest, with three minutes remaining. It felt at that point like the home side may have finally put this game away but Sami Whitcomb had other ideas. Already a little hot in this fourth quarter Whitcomb hit two huge three pointers in a row to bring it back to only a four point game and forcing her former team to call the timeout.
Out of the New York timeout Magbegor came up with a huge block and Whitcomb scored again, this time inside the paint, to make it a two point game. With just 32.7 seconds remaining the Storm used their final timeout to draw up a play to try and tie the game. Whitcomb got a decent look out of the timeout but this one wouldn’t go down. Fankam Mendjiadeu almost got the ball back for her side as she fought for the rebound and it was initially called Storm ball on the floor but the Liberty’s coach’s challenge overturned the call.
New York got possession and Ionescu converted her free throws when Seattle purposefully fouled, making it a two possession game and effectively ending the contest. While this may be a loss there is a lot to be proud of for this Storm team and how they fought and they did what Quinn wants them to do, they improved from the last game.