LOS ANGELES–The Storm struggled offensively in the first half but it was a career performance from Abby Bishop and a strong defensive showing that brought Seattle back for the 60-54 win over Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon.

The win snapped a two-game skid for the Storm (2-2) and marked the second straight victory over the Sparks.

“We’re really trying to focus on the things that we can control which is getting and taking good shots and really solid defense,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “We really can’t control when [the shots] go in. So we just want to stay consistent in our systems, our principals and in our mentality.”

After a cold shooting first half, the Storm made a push in the middle of the third. With Seattle trailing by 11 with 7:34 in the quarter, Jenna O’Hea found Alysha Clark in the right corner for the three to cut the Los Angeles lead to single digits.

The Sparks answered with a three of their own but then Seattle got four straight buckets with two from Abby Bishop to make it a 41-38 game.

Bishop, who scored eight points in the third, finished with a career-high 18 points on 7-for-12 from the field.

Later in the quarter, Renee Montgomery took an inbound pass at the basket and missed the layup but Quanitra Hollingsworth was there to clean it up and got the basket and the foul to pull the score to 41-40.

It capped off a 10-0 run for Seattle.

The Storm continued to hang around in the fourth and that is when Bishop took over again. Trailing 50-48, Sue Bird found a cutting Bishop in the lane and she hit the floater and drew the foul to tie it game at 50.

On the next possession, Bishop received the ball on the left wing, gave it up to Jewell Loyd, and got an immediate pass back to give her space to drill a wide open three and gave Seattle a 53-50 lead. It was the Storm’s first lead since 8:17 in the first quarter.

Bishop sparked an 8-0 run to put Seattle up 56-50.

“Obviously it’s going to be a little up and down but that’s normal for a new team, but today we showed signs of improvement from last game which is our goal just to get better every game and play together,” Bishop said.

Seattle’s stifling defense took care of the rest as it held Los Angeles to 25.9 percent in the second half.

The Storm will be back at home on Tuesday to start a stretch of four of six at KeyArena against Connecticut at 7 p.m.

After a layup from Langhorne cut the early Los Angeles lead to one, the Sparks went on a 9-2 run and had four different players score during the streak to take a 17-9 lead.

The bench unit, who was averaging 34 points per game going into Sunday’s game, brought the Storm back again and they got back-to-back buckets from Jewell Loyd and Ramu Tokashiki to cut the deficit to four.

Four players off the bench scored for the Storm during an 11-4 run between the first and second quarters but it was a three from starter Bishop that cut the Sparks lead back to one at 21-20.

Los Angeles then clamped down on Seattle and that defense turned into offense as the Sparks responded with an 11-0 run, capped by a three from Farhiya Abdi, to give them a 32-20 advantage.

NOTES:

Los Angeles forward Nneka Ogwumike, who averaged 15 points and seven rebounds last season, missed her second straight game due to an ankle injury… After allowing Los Angeles to shoot 50 percent in the first half, Seattle held the Sparks to 7-for-27 (25.9 percent) from the field in the second… Jewell Loyd scored 10 points off the bench, marking her first career double-digit point game… Alysha Clark had seven points and a career-high eight rebounds… The Sparks had three players in double figures, led by Jantel Lavender with 12.