Category: Basketball

Sami Whitcomb came off the bench to sink six 3-pointers and score a team-high 18 points as the Seattle Storm opened a three-game road trip with an 83-69 win over the host Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday.

Seattle (2-6) came into the contest on a two-game losing streak, but the Storm jumped ahead of the Mercury early and never trailed.

The lead grew to 11 points in the first quarter, then 17 in the second when Whitcomb sank one of her 3-pointers. She shot 6-for-10 from beyond the arc, and she missed her lone 2-point attempt of the night.

Phoenix (2-6) cut the deficit to single digits a little more than four minutes into the third quarter, but Whitcomb hit from deep on two of the next three Seattle possessions to quash any hope of a Mercury comeback.

Seattle failed to top 66 points in any of its three games preceding Tuesday, but the Storm had 50 by halftime in Phoenix.

Storm star Jewell Loyd, who came into Tuesday leading the WNBA in scoring at 26 points per game, finished with 17 points. She led the Seattle starters, all five of whom scored at least eight points.

Ivana Dojkic scored 14 and shot 3-for-7 from 3-point range. Rookie Jordan Horston finished with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds for her first career double-double. Ezi Magbegor added nine points, and Kia Nurse scored eight points.

Phoenix’s Sophie Cunningham led all scorers with 21 points, while Sug Sutton added 15 points and Michaela Onyenwere finished with 10 points. Shey Peddy came off the bench to contribute nine points and seven assists.

Mercury center Brittney Griner scored two points in just nine minutes, coming out in the second quarter with an apparent hip injury. Diana Taurasi went scoreless on 0-of-6 shooting.

–Field Level Media

AD Durr scored 13 points against her former team, helping the visiting Atlanta Dream to an 86-79 win over the New York Liberty on Tuesday night.

The Dream (3-5) snapped a three-game losing streak. Atlanta had six double-figure scorers, led by Allisha Gray’s 16 points.

Durr, New York’s first-round pick (second overall) in 2019, made 5 of 12 shot attempts on Tuesday.

Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard, the league’s reigning Rookie of the Year, scored 12 points but made just 4 of 11 shot attempts.

The Liberty (6-3) were without star guard Sabrina Ionescu, who has a left hamstring injury.

Marine Johannes, filling in for Ionescu, scored a game-high 18 points, making 4 of 10 3-point attempts. She also had four assists.

New York’s Breanna Stewart, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week after averaging 28.5 points in two games, struggled with her shooting, making just 1 of 14 attempts. Stewart finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and four blocks. She had game highs in all of those categories except points.

The Dream used a 7-0 run to end the first quarter on top 24-20. Atlanta shot 60 percent from the floor in the opening period.

New York shot just 42.1 percent in the first quarter, missing its last seven shots. Liberty center Jonquel Jones played just two minutes in the period after picking up a pair of fouls. Prior to that, she was 2-for-3 from the floor.

There were 12 lead changes in the first half, but the Liberty closed the second quarter on a 12-4 run, taking a 46-41 lead into intermission.

Durr led all players with 11 first-half points.

In the third, Atlanta held New York to 14 points. Dream guard Haley Jones hit a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to tie the score, 60-60.

The Dream then used a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to take control of the game, and Atlanta held off a late Liberty charge.

–Field Level Media

Rookie Aliyah Boston notched a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds and Kelsey Mitchell followed with 19 points to lift the Indiana Fever to an 87-66 victory against the Washington Mystics on Tuesday in Indianapolis.

After losing five of six to open the season, the Fever have won two of three. Indiana (3-6) shot 47.1 percent from the floor compared to 33.3 percent for the Mystics.

Queen Egbo grabbed 10 rebounds to go with six points off the bench for the Fever, helping the hosts to a 46-27 advantage on the glass.

Elena Delle Donne paced Washington (5-4) with 17 points and was the team’s lone scorer in double figures as the Mystics were unable to stretch their winning streak to three games.

Delle Donne and Brittney Sykes tied for the team lead with six rebounds. Sykes was Washington’s second-leading scorer with nine points.

Boston, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft out of South Carolina, was coming off a career-low scoring output of four points in Sunday’s 85-82 loss to Phoenix. She now has scored in double figures in seven of her nine career games.

Boston has three double-doubles in her past four contests.

Mitchell passed Katie Douglas and moved into second place all-time on Indiana’s career scoring list with a layup that beat the first-quarter buzzer.

Lexie Hull, NaLyssa Smith and Kristy Wallace scored eight points apiece for the Fever.

The second quarter transformed into a game of runs, with Indiana gaining momentum to build on its two-point edge after the first 10 minutes. The Fever thrived behind Boston, who showed little reluctance in moving through the paint, including two straight possessions in which she fought through challenges from Washington’s Shakira Austin on the way to a layup.

A 17-5 Fever run pushed the hosts’ advantage to nine points, but Washington responded with a 9-3 run to pull within 41-38 at halftime. Delle Donne, Li Meng and Kristi Toliver scored six points apiece to boost the Mystics, while Boston paced the Fever with nine points and six rebounds.

The Fever led 61-53 after three quarters and dominated the fourth, doubling up the Mystics 26-13 in the period.

–Field Level Media

Both the Dallas Wings and Los Angeles Sparks will look to put tough losses behind them when they square off on Wednesday afternoon in a Commissioner’s Cup game in Arlington, Texas.

The Wings head home after a 102-93 loss in New York on Sunday that snapped a two-game winning streak. Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas (5-4) with 25 points (13 in the first quarter) while Satou Sabally racked up 17 points and 11 rebounds, Natasha Howard added 14 points and Kalani Brown had 10.

Dallas led by six points at the half but was outscored 34-17 in the third quarter, in which the Liberty made 13 of 17 field-goal attempts.

Part of the Wings’ success has been the play of rookie Maddy Siegrist, who has been a real competitor and a “glue” player in her first nine games. Dallas will need all of that to beat the Sparks.

“I don’t care if she plays two minutes; I don’t care if she plays 11 minutes, 15 minutes — she is going to be ready,” Wings coach Latricia Trammell said. “She knows that she’s a rookie, but she already has impacted our team and our game, and she’s going to continue to be a great professional player.”

The Sparks (4-4) travel south after a 91-86 loss at Minnesota on Sunday in which they coughed up an 11-point lead in the final 3:38 of the game. Los Angeles was up 83-72 after a 3-pointer by Lexie Brown but scored just three points the rest of the way as Minnesota rang up a 17-0 run, aided by four Sparks turnovers.

Nneka Ogwumike scored 27 points to pace the Sparks, with Brown adding 21 and Jordin Canada tallying 18 points. Los Angeles was outrebounded 38-26 and had just two offensive boards in the loss.

Ogwumike expects her team to bounce back as the new-look Sparks acclimate to coach Curt Miller.

“We all fight in our own ways, and I think there’s also an aspect to us that we have a standard that we want to uphold,” Ogwumike said. “So keeping ourselves up in a way that allows us the grace to make mistakes but also understand our value (is important).”

–Field Level Media