Jewell Loyd leads quintet of Storm players in double-figures as Seattle wins its fourth-straight
INDIANAPOLIS – The “Core Four” keeps doing more for the Seattle Storm. And on Thursday night in Indianapolis, they did much more than just score.
Jewell Loyd poured in 22 points and dealt six assists, Skylar Diggins-Smith added 18 points and nine assists, Nneka Ogwumike had 17 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Ezi Magbegor came up with 15 points, eight boards and four more blocked shots as the Storm rolled past the Indiana Fever, 103-88.
Taken as a whole, Loyd, Diggins-Smith, Ogwumike, and Magbegor put 72 points, 17 rebounds, 24 assists, five steals and seven blocked shots onto the scoresheet inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse – all while committing a combined three turnovers.
Seattle (5-3) swept its two-game road trip and has won four straight games, its longest streak since 2022. Thursday’s 103 points were the second time the Storm reached triple digits, and it was the WNBA’s second-highest scoring game of the year, topped only by Dallas on May 25 in a 107-92 victory against Phoenix.
Except for a pair of early deficits at 2-0 and 4-2, Seattle led the rest of the way after ringing up 10-straight points to take a 12-4 lead just 4:10 into the game.
Even so, Indiana (1-8) would not let the Storm pull any further ahead, getting within four at 45-41 on a pair of Aliyah Boston free throws with four seconds left in the half. But Loyd buried a buzzer-beating 15-footer from the right corner to restore a six-point margin at the break, 47-41.
Seattle put together its highest-scoring quarter of the season, racking up 34 points in the third on 12-of-18 shooting from the field while limiting Indiana to just 18 points. Seattle took an 81-59 bulge into the fourth. The advantage grew to as many as 27 points at 94-67 with 5:37 to play.
A 13-0 run by the Fever cut it to 14 at 94-80. By then, the clock was down to just 2:34, and the teams essentially traded points the rest of the way.
On numerous occasions Thursday, Storm players made an extra pass before shooting, and that resulted in a season-high 29 assists on 42 baskets, a mark of 69 percent. It was their third time in the past four games with 20-plus.
That also factored into another solid shooting night, this one at 56 percent (42-of-75). Ogwumike hit 72.7 percent (8-of-11); Diggins-Smith and Loyd were both at 57.1 (both were 8-of-14), and Jordan Horston was at 66.7 percent off the bench (6-of-9).
Seattle put the defensive clamps on NaLyssa Smith during the second half. Smith had 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting through the first 20 minutes but got just four more shots after that and finished with 23 points on 8-of-14. Caitlin Clark, coming off her first professional 30-point outing against Los Angeles on Tuesday, tallied 20, but was limited to 6-of-17 from the floor
BY THE NUMBERS
— For the two-game trip, Loyd, Diggins-Smith, Ogwumike, and Magbegor logged 135 points, 40 rebounds, 36 assists, 16 steals, and 14 blocks.
— Magbegor now has multiple blocks in nine -traight games, dating back to the 2023 season finale.
— Ogwumike’s 17 points put her at 5,995 for her career. If, as expected she scores her 6,000th next Tuesday at home against Phoenix, she will become the 15th player and fifth-youngest player in WNBA history with that many.
— Loyd, meanwhile, is 35 points away from 5,000.
— The Storm had a season-low seven turnovers, with just two of those during the second half, both of those late in the game long after the outcome was no longer in doubt.
UP NEXT
The Storm has four days off before playing host to Phoenix on Tuesday, June 4, at Climate Pledge Arena. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m.
—— StormBasketball.com ——