BROOKLYN, N.Y. – For the first 8½ minutes the third quarter, almost every shot that Jewell Loyd and the rest of the Seattle Storm took found the bottom of the basket.
For the rest of the game, almost nothing did.
Loyd tied her career high with 35 points – getting 21 of those in the third – but was kept off the board the rest of the way, as the New York Liberty rallied from 15 points down to beat the Storm on Wednesday night in Barclays Center, 83-79.
Seattle (16-7), which rested Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart for the second straight game, had a 72-57 lead with 1:24 left in the third quarter, thanks primarily to Loyd, who drained seven of her 10 shots from the floor, including three from behind the arc in that period alone.
But the Storm tallied a mere seven more points the rest of the way, hitting just two of their final 20 shots.
New York (11-12) rang up 26 points during the final 11½ minutes, including 13 in a row bridging the third and fourth quarters to cut that 72-57 margin all the way down to 72-70 with 7:25 still to play.
Seattle managed to stay in front, pushing the lead back to five at 79-74 on a pair of free throws by Mercedes Russell with 1:55 left.
The Liberty then scored the final nine points. They tied it at 79-79 on a lay-in by Natasha Howard with 1:10 to go, then went up 81-79 when Betnijah Laney beat the shot clock buzzer with a shot from near the top of the key with 17.6 seconds left.
Coming out of a timeout, Seattle worked the ball underneath, with Loyd trying to find Mercedes Russell to the left of the hoop. Bur her pass was knocked away, picked up by Laney with 3.9 seconds left. Loyd fouled her, but the Storm still wasn’t over the limit. A subsequent foul on the ensuing inbounds pass following a Liberty timeout sent Sami Whitcomb to the line with 2.6 seconds to go, and she drained both for an 83-79 lead that effectively sealed it.
Loyd’s 21 in the third quarter was the most in a single period by any WNBA player this season, and was the third-most ever. Diana Taurasi of Phoenix had 22 in 2006, and Brittney Sykes matched that while with Atlanta in 2019.
While Loyd tied her career high (she initially set it last Aug. 20 against Indiana), Katie Lou Samuelson notched a new one, scoring 15 points, getting the last of those on a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a 77-72 lead with 4:01 left.
A back-and-forth first half ended with New York taking a 42-41 lead into the locker room. The Storm, who put together a 9-0 scoring run in the first quarter to go from 17-10 down to 19-17 ahead, had an 11-0 surge in the third, turning a 49-49 tie into a 60-49 lead. Loyd tallied the first nine of those 11 points before Stephanie Talbot finished it with a short turnaround shot from the right of the basket.
Laney finished with 17 points and Rebecca Allen came off the bench for 17 to help New York snap a three-game losing streak.
It’s just the second time this season the Storm have dropped two in a row. They’ll get another shot at the Liberty on Friday at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time (JoeTV).
—— StormBasketball.com ——