PHOENIX–The rookies took center stage for the Storm in the final game of an extended road trip. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Ramu Tokashiki, and Jewell Loyd led the way for the Storm but it was not enough as Phoenix outlasted Seattle 83-66 on Wednesday night.

After playing the last six games on the road, the Storm will make its long awaited return home on Friday to take on Elena Della Donne and the Chicago Sky at 7 p.m.

“Phoenix is great team and Sandy (Brondello) is doing a great job with them,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “You really have no margin for error because they have a lot of weapons. They’re well coached and we just didn’t have enough tonight to counter all of their weapons.”

After a pair of free throws from Phoenix’s Cayla Francis, the Mercury took an 11-point lead but then Mosqueda-Lewis found her rhythm.

She hit consecutive left handed layups and then hit a three from the corner to cut the Phoenix lead to seven at 35-28. The rookie forward scored 12 of her team-high 14 points in the quarter on 5-for-6 from the field and hit 2-for-3 from three.

“My teammates were just doing a good job of finding me,” said Mosqueda-Lewis. “Our post players were doing a great job of setting screens. A lot of our offense is just based off of movement and I think we all were really reading each other.”

This came only one night after she scored a career-high 15 points against Los Angeles.

“Like I’ve been saying to people for months now- she’s been making great progress behind the scenes,” Boucek said. “Just because people weren’t seeing it in the games didn’t mean it wasn’t happening. She’s been working extremely hard to get ready and play in this league. Now she’s ready. You’re seeing the fruit of all of her labor.”

Later in the quarter, Loyd converted on a basket and a free throw and it brought Seattle back within six at 39-33.

Phoenix took a 10-point lead into the second half and the Storm quickly cut into the lead on a three from Alysha Clark and a layup from Loyd to bring the Storm within seven.

Loyd scored nine on the night.

That would make up the only field goals of the quarter for the Storm as the team shot 2-for-16 from the field but Phoenix was not much better and shot 3-for-19 in the third.

The Storm continued to chip away in the fourth and Tokashiki scored on consecutive possessions and cut the Phoenix lead to 10. She also finished with 14 points.

The trio of Mosqueda-Lewis, Tokashiki, and Loyd scored 37 of the team’s 66 points.

But every time Seattle made a push, Phoenix was able to fend off the advance. With the score at 70-60, the Mercury went on a 9-2 run and got a three from Noelle Quinn to take a 79-62 lead.

Quinn scored a season-high 13 points with eight coming in the second half.

“I think a lot of their complementary players tonight were hitting a lot of shots,” Mosqueda-Lewis said. “They were really executing well and we were trying to rotate defensively and whoever the open man was they were knocking in all of the shots.

“I think our team did a nice job of trying to fight and to try to stay as close as we could the whole game but we just didn’t have enough in the end.”

NOTES

Sue Bird missed Wednesday’s game, which was the final game of a back-to-back, due to rest… Seattle and Phoenix combined to score 13 points in the third quarter… Phoenix scored a season-high 52 points in the first half… Phoenix had four players in double figures… Seattle shot 32.3 percent in the second half… Brittney Griner, who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, did not record a field goal but scored four points and grabbed five rebounds.