MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.–After falling behind by 18 in the third quarter, the Storm scratched and clawed its way back into the game had had a chance to steal a road win in the final minutes.

But the comeback bid came up just short as Seattle dropped the contest to Minnesota 73-67 on Tuesday night.

“It was a team effort for sure,” Storm guard Jewell Loyd said. “That’s a huge part of it. Our shots started to go in a little bit, but it was definitely a team effort.”

The game looked like it might get away from Seattle in the third quarter when the offense struggled to get going out of the halftime break and watched the Minnesota lead grow to 18 at 57-39.

But the Storm came back and ended the quarter on a 7-0 run with five coming from Crystal Langhorne, who finished with a team-high 14 points, to head into the fourth down by 11.

The momentum carried over into the fourth quarter and a three-pointer from Jenna O’Hea chipped away at the Lynx lead to bring it to 61-54.

With Minnesota still up by seven, Seattle went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to one with 2:11 left. The Storm had a chance to tie it up with under a minute when the Storm were down 70-67 and inbounding with 13.6 seconds

But the Lynx defense clamped down and held the Storm down as two costly turnovers in the final minutes were the difference in the game.

They were two of 18 turnovers on the night, which resulted in 17 Minnesota points.

Seattle held Minnesota to 27.5 percent shooting in the second half.

Minnesota forward Maya Moore led the Lynx with 20 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.

“We played really well and held on in the third and made them take really tough shots and made them really uncomfortable,” Loyd said. “If we can continue to do that, it will help us for our next game.”

Seattle will return home for the final two games of the season when it hosts Minnesota on Friday and San Antonio on Sunday to wrap the season.

The Storm came out firing in the first half and forced Minnesota into 10 turnovers for 10 points.

Seattle took a six-point lead in the first after a basket and free throw from Jewell Loyd and a layup from Markeisha Gatling to put the Storm up 18-12. Loyd had a team-high nine points in the first half and scored 13 for the game on 6-for-12 from the field.

But Minnesota closed the quarter on an 11-3 run to take a two-point lead.

The Storm came back in the second and battled back to take a 31-29 lead on a layup from Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.

However, the sharpshooting of Minnesota sparked the remainder of the half as the Lynx shot 65.5 percent before the break and took a 46-35 lead.

NOTES

Alysha Clark finished with 12 points on 5-for-6 from the field to go along with six rebounds… It was Ramu Tokashiki’s first game back from the Japanese National Team and scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds… Jenna O’Hea went 2-for-3 from three on the night and is now 8-for-11 over her last four games from distance… Sue Bird returned to the lineup and scored seven points and dished out a team-high eight assists.