ATLANTA–The Storm roared back in the fourth quarter to nearly erase a 14-point deficit and cut it to one but a couple of miscues down the stretch ended up being the difference as Seattle drops the contest to the Dream 72-64 on Sunday afternoon.

“We had a hard time getting starting today,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “I don’t think we really matched their (Atlanta Dream) intensity the way we needed to until the fourth quarter. We finally got to the mentality that we needed to get to… but it took us until the fourth quarter to actually feel what it feels like to play against a team with this level of aggression.”

Both teams struggled entering the third quarter and only one point was scored in the first 4:30 of the quarter but then Jewell Loyd hit a pair of free throws to cut the Atlanta lead to 36-30.

Atlanta broke its scoring drought when Angel McCoughtry hit a layup with 5:05 left in the quarter.

After a layup and free throw from Ramu Tokashiki cut the deficit to seven, Atlanta outscored Seattle 13-6 to end the period and took a 14-point lead into the fourth.

“I think overall as a team we were Jekyll and Hyde; for the first three quarters just not so good and just really lacking energy,” Storm guard Sue Bird said. “Then in the fourth quarter, we kind of looked at the scoreboard and I don’t remember what the exact score was, but it wasn’t like we were down 20 or 30 points, we were still in reach.

“I think we collectively were able to pick it up and go on a little run and make it interesting.”

Seattle broke out in the fourth and went on a 9-2 run capped off by two straight buckets from Alysha Clark to cut the lead to 55-48.

Later in the quarter, it was Clark again when Crystal Langhorne found her cutting to the basket for the bucket and the foul. Clark converted and she made it a 61-55 game. Two possessions later, Bird pulled up for the jumper and hit to cut the deficit to four.

The 14-year veteran scored 11 points with five assists.

McCoughtry hit a pair of free throws to extend the Atlanta lead and then Bird found Langhorne at the basket for the layup just before the shot clock expired, pushing it back to four.

On the next possession, Bird found Clark on the left wing and she drilled the three to make it a 63-62 game with 2:11 to go.

Clark scored 10 of her 11 points in the fourth quarter to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Seattle shot 66 percent from the field in the final period.

But Seattle continued to struggle to find an answer for McCoughtry and she scored on two straight possessions, giving the Dream a 68-62 lead with 1:13 left. She had a game-high 23 points.

A jumper from Loyd cut it back to four but Seattle committed two turnovers in the final minute of play and it resulted in four free throws to put the game away.

“We’re going to look back at the film and see what we did wrong and stuff like that,” Loyd said. “But for us, we’re still learning and still growing and still developing as a team.  You want to get better every game, so hopefully we’ll figure out what’s wrong and execute it.”

The Storm will pick it up again on Wednesday when it takes on Indiana at 9 a.m. PT.

The Storm struggled early and missed six of its first seven shots and trailed 14-5 in the first quarter but then Seattle started to find a rhythm. Tokashiki, who had just checked in the game, found Loyd for the alley-oop layup to cut it a seven-point game.

It jump started a 9-2 run to end the quarter.

Loyd had a team-high 12 points.

Much like the the first quarter, Atlanta got off to a good start in the second and rode back-to-back threes from McCoughtry to a 10-2 run to take a 26-16 lead.

After shooting only 27.8 percent in the first quarter, Atlanta hit 56.3 percent (9-for-16) of its shots in the second.

Loyd provided a jolt towards the end of the half as she scored four straight points as Seattle went into the break trailing 36-27. Loyd had a team-best six points in the half.

NOTES

Seattle had four players in double figure scoring… The Storm bench poured in 27 points on the night… The three assists from Alysha Clark were a career-high… Atlanta was held to 38.8 percent shooting from the field… The Dream scored 16 points off the 15 Seattle turnovers… Atlanta forward Sancho Lyttle had eight points and 15 rebounds.