Seattle holds Connecticut under 65 for the second time this season, winning the season series 2-1

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – It wasn’t officially a playoff game. It’s not quite that time yet.

But for the Seattle Storm, it had that kind of feel against that kind of an opponent – and they went out and won it …

… on the road.

Skylar Diggins-Smith scored 10 of her 18 points during the fourth quarter, the last two on a pair of clinching free throws with four seconds left, and the Storm led for almost the entire second half on Tuesday night to beat the Connecticut Sun, 71-64.

The outcome gave Seattle (20-13) a split of the two-game set inside Mohegan Sun Arena, bouncing back from Sunday’s 93-86 loss. The Storm is still battling Las Vegas for the No. 4 playoff spot, which comes with home court advantage for games 1 and 2 of the best-of-3 first-round series.

Jewell Loyd added 17 points, six of those on back-to-back 3-pointers during Seattle’s 10-0 run to finish the first half. Nneka Ogwumike had 14 before fouling out with 59 seconds left, and Gabby Williams tallied a season-high 11, her first double-digit game since rejoining the Storm in late August.

The Sun (24-9), who own the league’s second-best record and are trying to stay within striking distance of the league-leading New York Liberty, broke out to leads of 8-0 and 18-6 in the first quarter. But Seattle finished that period on a 7-0 run and was right back in it at 18-13.

Connecticut still had a 31-24 advantage with the clock winding down toward halftime. That’s when the Storm put together one of their most timely scoring outbursts of the season.

Ogwumike started it with a jumper off a feed from Williams with 2:10 on the clock. Ogwumike then came up with a steal, got it ahead to Mercedes Russell, who found Diggins-Smith for a lay-in at 1:43 to make it 31-28.

Loyd buried a 3-point bomb off a feed from Williams at the 1:10 mark to produce the game’s first tie at 31-31. That lasted for all of 26 seconds before Loyd drained another dagger for a 34-31 edge at 44.3 seconds, and that’s what the Storm took into the locker room.

Except for third-quarter ties at 40-40 and 46-46, Seattle was in front the rest of the way. They finished the third quarter on a 9-2 run with baskets from Diggins-Smith, Loyd, Ogwumike, and Jordan Horston, and a free throw from Loyd to go up 55-48.

Diggins-Smith scored Seattle’s first six points of the fourth quarter to help produce a 61-51 margin. Connecticut got as close as three at 63-60 with 3:18 left. But as is often the case, the Storm returned from a timeout and scored immediately, this one courtesy of a short jumper by Diggins-Smith.

From there, it was never below a two-possession lead. The Sun’s last chance to get back in went awry on a missed 3-pointer by Tyasha Harris at 26.7 seconds. Seattle’s final points came at the foul line, more than enough to offset a DeWanna Bonner 3-pointer.

BY THE NUMBERS

-- The Storm shot 46.8% for the day (29-of-62), and four of the five starters hit 50% or better: 7-of-12 for Ogwumike, 5-of-8 for Williams, 7-of-14 for Diggins-Smith, and 2-of-4 for Ezi Magbegor.

-- Seattle’s defense limited Connecticut to 41.4% shooting (24-of-58) as the Sun scored 64 points or fewer for just the fourth time since 2019. Its 41.4% shooting was 13 percentage points lower than the Sun’s 54.2% on Sunday.

-- The Storm had a 31-30 edge on the boards, with six each for Williams and Ogwumike.

-- Williams had five of Seattle’s 22 assists. That’s the 19th time in 33 games with 20-plus and the second straight contest at Mohegan Sun with 22.

-- Mercedes Russell was key off the bench, finishing with a game-high +21 despite having just two points and three rebounds.

-- Horston had three of the Storm’s eight blocked shots.

-- Ogwumike’s 14 points give her 513 for the season. It is her third year in a row with 500-plus and the seventh of her career.

-- Bonner finished with 26 points for Connecticut. Brionna Jones, who had 26 on Sunday, added 21.

UP NEXT

The Storm wraps up the three-game road trip with a visit to New York on Thursday. Tip-off is at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time (Fox 13 / Prime Video Washington).

—— StormBasketball.com ——