Jewell Loyd tallies 31 points and defense once again stands strong in victory
MINNEAPOLIS – After being on the winning end of a four-game season sweep against Phoenix, the Seattle Storm didn’t want to finish on the losing end of a four-game sweep by the Minnesota Lynx.
Jewell Loyd saw to it that they didn’t.
Loyd scored 31 points and moved into the No. 4 spot on Seattle’s all-time single-season scoring list, and Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds on Sunday as the Storm rolled to an 88-74 victory.
Loyd’s performance inside the Target Center gave her 722 points for the season. Lauren Jackson had 698 in 2002. Jackson also has the No. 3 spot on the list with 739. The all-time leader is Breanna Stewart with 742 in 2018.
It was Loyd’s 10th 30-plus point performance of the season, as she hit 10-of-25 from the floor, with 5-of-10 from downtown. Ezi Magbegor added 12 points, and Sami Whitcomb had 10 for the Storm.
Seattle (10-22) led for most of the game. The only times the Storm trailed were 3-0 and 3-2 in the first quarter and 34-33 in the second. The latter came after the Lynx (15-17) went on a 17-6 run to wipe out what had been a 27-17 Seattle lead.
A 14-6 Storm run to close the half produced a 47-40 lead at the break. Loyd started that surge with a 3-pointer, and finished it with another trey.
Seattle came out and scored the first six points of the third quarter, four of them by Mendjiadeu, forcing Minnesota into an early timeout. The lead grew to 15 at 57-42, then the Lynx climbed back into it with eight-straight points.
But by the end of the third, Seattle was back on top, 64-52, and it never dropped below double digits the rest of the way.
The Storm have won six of their past nine games, and have done it in large part with a significantly improved defensive effort. On Sunday, they limited the Lynx to just 35.3 percent shooting (24-of -8) and just 22.2 percent behind the arc (4-of-18). The overall percentage was the second-lowest by any opponent this season (Atlanta hit 31.5 percent, 23-of-73 on Aug. 10), and the downtown percentage was the third lowest (Atlanta 21.1 on July 12, Phoenix 21.7 on Aug. 13).
It’s also the fourth time in the past eight games the Storm have kept an opponent below 40 percent overall.
On the scoreboard in the 12 games since the All-Star break, Seattle is allowing opponents just 77.4 points per game – fewest in the league. In the 20 games prior to the break, it was giving up 86.4 points per game, tied for the most.
Minnesota got 18 points from Kayla McBride and just 14 from Napheesa Collier. In the first three games against the Storm – all Minnesota wins – Collier had gone off for 33, 31, and 24, the latter in Friday’s 78-70 Lynx victory in Seattle. McBride had 18 and 19 in the first two games and 21 on Friday.
Loyd wasn’t the only Storm player with a scoring milestone on Sunday. Kia Nurse tallied her 1,500th career point, nailing a 3-pointer from the left side on a pass from Jade Melbourne with 4.5 seconds left in the first quarter. She finished with eight points for the day and now has 1,506.
Mendjiadeu’s 15 rebounds was one more than her previous high of 14, set at New York on July 8. It was her fourth double-digit mark on the boards for the rookie center out of South Florida.
Seattle continues its three-game road trip on Tuesday at Chicago, tipping off at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time.
—— StormBasketball.com ——