By Wyatt Yearout

The Seattle Storm closed out its final regular season road trip defeating the Minnesota Lynx 81-72, marking the first win at Minnesota since July 17, 2010.

With the victory, Seattle matched the most road wins in WNBA history (achieved multiple times), finishing the season at 13-4. The Storm remains in the number one seed, now sitting at 24-8 on the season.

Natasha Howard posted a team-high 21 points for Seattle.

Breanna Stewart tallied her eighth double-double of the season with 17 points and a career-high tying 17 rebounds.

DEFINING MOMENTS
The Storm rattled off a 10-2 run early in the third period to gain a double-digit lead at 48-38 with six minutes remaining in the quarter.

After the Storm took an eight-point lead into the fourth, the Lynx went on a run early in the period to cut the lead to four at 62-58. However, Stewart answered the run with back-to-back three-pointers followed by another three from Sue Bird to extend the lead back to double digits at 71-58.

Seattle remained in a rhythm on the offensive end through the remainder of the quarter, extending its lead to 18 points late, sealing the victory.

HUGHES’ TAKE
Head coach Dan Hughes thought the way his team responded out of the timeout when the Lynx cut the lead to four was key in the victory.

“We came out and got really good looks from three and stepped up and made them and we got separation. Coming out of that timeout, our execution and ability to get open looks was just excellent.”

NOTES

• Seattle’s 81-72 win today preserves the team’s bounce-back record. The Storm has not lost back-to-back games in 2018, the only WNBA team to achieve that feat to-date this season.
• With today’s win, Seattle is now just 1 win, OR 1 Atlanta loss away from securing home court advantage throughout the 2018 WNBA Playoffs. The only other season that Seattle entered the postseason as the #1 overall seed was 2010, the same year the team won its second WNBA Championship.
• With 17 points today, Stewart, who has scored 705 points this season, now needs to average 17.0 PPG over Seattle’s remaining 3 regular-season games to match the franchise’s single-season scoring record, currently held by Lauren Jackson (739 points, 2007).
• Bird recorded 4 assists. She now has 215 assists on the season, needing 6 to match her career-best (221) for a single season and 21 to match the all-time record (236) held by Ticha Penicheiro. To catch Penicherio, she would need to average 10.5 assists down the stretch.
• Seattle is now 23-2 with the starting line-up of Bird, Jewell Loyd, Alysha Clark, Stewart and Howard.

UP NEXT
The Storm returns to Seattle for its next contest against the New York Liberty on Aug. 17. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m./PT.