SEATTLE–After putting together an impressive offensive first half, the Storm struggled to handle the Minnesota pressure and watched its 18-point lead slip away as they dropped the contest 76-73 on Thursday night.

“This is the best team in the league and we battled them to the very end,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “There is a big difference between playing well in a game and closing one out. They have a lot of experience collectively of closing games out together.

“We don’t have that experience together. Their experience showed down the stretch.”

Seattle went into the second half with a nine point lead and quickly added to it with a pair of threes from Abby Bishop and one from Jenna O’Hea to take a 60-44.

Minnesota (6-2) settled in and picked up the pressure. The Storm was limited to 1-for-7 shooting the rest of the quarter with seven turnovers but was still able to fend off the Lynx and keep it an eight-point game heading into the fourth.

“We did a good job in the first half so they made an adjustment, which was to switch all of our ball screens,” Bird said. “We basically got stagnant because of it. In the first half what really worked for us was our ability to move with and without the ball also just moving the ball itself.”

After a running shot from O’Hea pushed it to a 10-point game, Minnesota went on a 9-0 run and got a three from Maya Moore to cut the Seattle lead to one.

On the next Storm (2-5) possession, Renee Montgomery tried to find an opening in the right corner and with the shot clock running down found O’Hea on the wing for the three to put Seattle back up by four.

She finished with a career-high 17 points on 5-for-10 from the field.

“It was nice to have some proper practices this week,” O’Hea said. “I was able to work on some things I haven’t been working on in games. It felt a lot better out there.”

Minnesota pushed it back to a one-point game and with a minute left on the clock it was Sue Bird who hit the three but give the Storm a 72-68 cushion. Bird finished with a season-high 16 points.

The Lynx then went to Damiris Dantas on two straight possessions and she picked up two layups and the foul to put Minnesota up 73-72 with 18.4 second left. It was Minnesota’s first lead since it was 2-0 in the first quarter.

Seattle will take its act on the road to play a back-to-back this weekend at San Antonio and Tulsa, beginning Saturday.

“I thought a lot of people showed progress,” Boucek said. “They have worked very hard in this home stretch and I think, individually, we have gotten people better and I think we, as a team, got better. That’s our goal is to get better every day so I thought today was a success.”

With the Storm already leading 14-10 in the first, the Storm offense picked up the pace.

Jewell Loyd caught the ball on the right side and drove to get the bucket and the foul. On the next possession, Renee Montgomery found Abby Bishop at the top of the key for the three to go up 20-12.

Montgomery got herself involved in the scoring and drilled a three from the wing to give Seattle an 11-point lead. Ramu Tokashiki was next and she hit a turnaround jumper from the baseline, which put the Storm up by 13.

The Storm had its offense clicking early and went on a 18-7 run. Seattle led 32-19 after the first and shot 11-for-19 from the field.

O’Hea and Bird each had seven points in the quarter and the team scored nine points off the four Minnesota miscues.

Seattle took a game-high 18-point lead in the second quarter and got a boost from its bench, including seven points from Markeisha Gatling, who was making her Storm debut.

NOTES

University of Connecticut women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma was in attendance at the game on Tuesday. Five of his former players were active for the game including Storm players Sue Bird, Renee Montgomery, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Minnesota players Maya Moore and Asjha Jones… Seattle scored 51 points in the first half, which is the most this season, and shot 54.1 percent from the field… The Storm bench outscored Minnesota 20-3 in the first half… With her three in the fourth quarter, Sue Bird passed Sheryl Swoopes for 13th on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. She now has 4,876 points… After shooting 1-for-13 from three on Sunday against Phoenix, the Storm went 9-for-24 from distance (37.5 percent) on Thursday.