MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.–Only days after breaking through in a series of close games, the Storm looked to make it two straight but Minnesota overwhelmed Seattle in the third and ran away to hand it the 82-57 loss on Friday night.

“They significantly out-played us in the second half,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “They went up a notch in the third quarter and we didn’t match it.”

Early in the third quarter, Sue Bird found Jenna O’Hea on the baseline for the jumper to make it a one-point game but then Minnesota began to roll.

After a pair of free throws from Rebekkah Brunson, Minnesota guard Lindsay Whalen hit a pullup jumper to move the Lynx a five-point lead at 40-35. Seimone Augustus also got going and scored nine points as part of a 23-8 run to end the quarter to put Minnesota up 59-43.

“Once they get their rhythm and their confidence, they’re really tough,” Boucek said. “You try to do things to keep them from getting that rhythm and break it, but they’re world-class scorers.”

Seattle was unable to close the gap.

Augustus scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half and Minnesota shot 61 percent in the quarter.

“All of these games are kind of stepping stones for us,” Bird said. “Just getting experience, seeing what it takes to be successful in this league and what it means to be ready and focused every single night. The minute you take one possession off, the game could be over.

“The minute you take one minute, two minutes mentally off, that’s when you can let a team get in there and get a 10-point lead, just like that. You can’t have those moments.”

The Storm will look to rebound on Sunday at Atlanta at 12 p.m.

Both Minnesota and Seattle struggled to find an offensive rhythm in the first quarter and that continued into the second until the 8:45 mark in the quarter when Whalen hit a turnaround jumper to put the Lynx up by four.

She backed it up with another layup and then Maya Moore drove to the lane for the hoop to go up by eight and forced the Storm to call a timeout.

Moore scored 14 points in the half and Whalen chipped in with 10 points, 16 for the game, and three assists.

Moore finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds.

After the timeout, Bird quickly found Ramu Tokashiki under the basket for the layup and the foul. Alysha Clark hit a layup on a cut to the basket and then Bird scored five straight to cap an 8-0 run and take a 24-22 lead.

Bird scored 10 points in the half.

Later in the quarter, Jewell Loyd hit a three to give Seattle its largest lead of the half at 31-26.

NOTES

Crystal Langhorne scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds… Seattle had 11 assists on the team’s 13 first half field goals… the Storm, which is second in the league in bench points, got 23 points from the second unit… Sue Bird scored in double figures for her fifth straight game and now has 4,917 career points, only 96 behind Taj McWilliams-Franklin for 12th on the all-time list… Seattle held Minnesota to 38.9 percent from the field in the first half but the Lynx shot 67.9 percent in the second.