INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.–The Storm struggled to take care of the ball and Indiana took full advantage as the Storm dropped the finale of its three-game road trip 88-65 on Wednesday afternoon.

Seattle will return home on Friday to take on Phoenix at KeyArena as the first game of a doubleheader with the Seattle Pro-Am.

“I think just overall we’ve run out of gas,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “We’ve been on the road a lot.  Haven’t had a chance to rest or practice in a while.  We played against a really good team that’s playing really well.  Just didn’t have enough to battle them.”

The Storm fell behind early 17-6 in the first quarter with nine points coming from Indiana’s Marissa Coleman but then the Storm battled back.

On the next possession, Abby Bishop hit a three to bring the deficit to single digits at 17-9. Next time down the floor, Alysha Clark found Jewell Loyd for the alley-oop layup to cut it to eight. Sue Bird chipped in with a pair of free throws and it got the Storm back into the game at 19-13.

Bishop finished with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting.

The Storm found itself down by 12 in the second but, again, chipped away at the lead. Clark had five straight points, including a three, and Bird hit a pair of free throws to make it a 36-29 game.

But then the turnovers began to pile up for Seattle and Indiana took advantage. The Fever went on a 9-2 run to take a 46-31 lead.

Indiana scored 19 points off the 12 Seattle turnovers in the first half. The Fever went into the half with a 53-35 lead.

“Indiana is a really good defensive team and they like to be physical and aggressive and take you out of your sets and that’s basically what happened.,” Bird said. “We just didn’t respond to what they did.”

Loyd tried to keep the Storm in the ballgame and attacked the rim as she scored nine points in the period, which included going 4-for-4 from the line.

“We’re taking good shots, we’re just missing them,” Loyd said. “We were hesitant at times. We just have to get more aggressive, have more confidence in ourselves to make shots. I’m trying to get more aggressive, get to the free throw line.  Just trying to get into a good rhythm.”

She finished with a team-high 15 points on 3-for-7 from the field and 8-for-10 from the line. It was the fourth time in the last five games Loyd has reached double figures in scoring.

Despite Loyd’s burst in the quarter, the Storm had no answer on defense as Indiana shot 50 percent from the field and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds.

NOTES

Seattle scored 28 bench points, led by 15 from Jewell Loyd… The Storm went 22-for-26 from the free throw line (84.6 percent)… Indiana was led by Lynetta Kizer with 17 off the bench… The Fever scored 24 points off the Seattle 23 turnovers.