Breanna Stewart Scores Season-High 25 Points; Seattle Drops to 1-3
SEATTLE – After erasing a 16-point deficit in the second half to force overtime, the Seattle Storm lost 84-82 to the Washington Mystics at KeyArena on Thursday. Storm rookie forward Breanna Stewart scored a game-high 25 points to go along with seven rebounds, four blocks and four steals.
Trailing by 16 with 3:24 to go in the third quarter, Seattle (1-3) marched back into the game behind Stewart and point guard Sue Bird, who notched 11 of her 15 points and four of her five assists in the second half. Bird found Jewell Loyd under the hoop for the game-tying layup with seven seconds to go that sent it to overtime.
In the overtime period, Mystics guard Ivory Latta hit a corner three-pointer with 44 seconds remaining to give Washington a four-point lead. Stewart made a three-pointer of her own to make it 83-82 in the final seconds, but the Storm wasn’t able to complete another comeback.
Stewart shot 10-of-20 from the floor on her way to 25 points, which marks a season high for the No. 1 pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft. Alysha Clark scored 10 points and Crystal Langhorne added 10 against her former team, making it the third straight contest in which four Seattle players reached double figures.
Washington initially built its lead through a 12-0 run spanning the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second, and it held a 40-33 edge at the break. Before the Storm made its run to send the game to overtime, the Mystics used an 11-2 run to increase their lead to 16 late in the third quarter.
In her season debut, Latta scored 16 off the bench for the Mystics, who improve to 2-3 with Thursday’s victory. Emma Meesseman notched a team-high 19 points, and Tayler Hill added 18 to give Washington its first win at KeyArena since 2005.
Storm forward Jenna O’Hea made her season debut Thursday night after missing the first three games. She scored six points in 14 minutes of action, including a three-pointer the first time she touched the ball. O’Hea was unavailable for the season opener and rested the previous two games due to concluding overseas commitments.
Seattle next hosts the Connecticut Sun on Saturday at 7 p.m. before heading back on the road to face the Indiana Fever next Wednesday.