Needing a feel-good game to get back on track following an upset loss in their previous outing, the Storm jumped on the Connecticut Sun at the start and ran away with a 97-81 victory on Friday night.
Seattle had little difficulty cruising past Connecticut, which has lost eight straight, with a dominant performance that produced several highlights for the crowd of 10,776 at Climate Pledge Arena to savor.
“You guys know my disposition when I came up here the last game and just talking about things, I felt we could get better at (and) talking about how I felt disappointed in our performance,” said Skylar Diggins noting Tuesday’s 94-86 loss to the Indiana Fever. “Just showing some better effort for us. And when we talk about that consistency, we got a lot of vets on our team.
“So, we wanted to respond tonight regardless of who we were playing. We know we needed to respond, and I thought we started out good enough in the first quarter.”
Diggins, who scored a game-high 24 points, got things going with a red-hot first-quarter shooting display while canning all four of her shots, including two three-pointers.
In her last outing before Saturday’s All-Star voting deadline for fans, Gabby Williams gave one last compelling case to nab her first All-Star invitation. Seattle’s do-everything wing flirted with a triple-double for the second time this season before finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
Meanwhile, Nneka Ogwumike scored 10 of her 16 points in the decisive third quarter, Ezi Magbegor tallied 12 points and rookie Dominique Malonga had a career-high 11 for the Storm, who shot 49.3% on field goals and won the rebounding battle (34 to 28) for the fifth time this season.
Seattle also had 27 assists on 34 field goals and shot 87% on free throws while converting 20 of 23 foul shots.
“The whole theme of the game was to set a standard. Not match an energy, but set our standard,” coach Noelle Quinn said. “In the second quarter we dictated that. And then and at halftime, it was just a reminder of, you know, coming in and making sure we started the third quarter appropriately.
“Again, it wasn't about the opponent, but more so about us. And the biggest thing was playing out of our defense and being more efficient in our offense.”
Seattle, which never trailed, went up 24-19 after the first quarter and took a 52-38 lead into halftime.
The Storm blew the game open with an 18-5 run at the start of the third quarter that included four three-pointers — one from Erica Wheeler and Williams and two from Ogwumike.
Ogwumike’s last three put Seattle on top 70-43 with 5:02 left in the third.
The blowout win allowed Quinn to rest her starters in the fourth quarter and enabled Malonga to play a career-high 20 minutes off the bench while backup guard Zia Cooke tallied nine points and four steals in 24 minutes — all season highs.
“We're in a stretch where I've asked Dom to grow up more, and I think it's important, especially being down a guard, to have her come in the rotation and play some longer stretches of minutes,” Quinn said.
Connecticut, which played without injured sharpshooter Marina Mabrey (ankle), received 20 points off the bench from Aneesah Morrow. Jacy Sheldon and Bria Hartley each added 15 points and Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 11 for the Sun (2-14).
Following their three-game homestand, the Storm (10-6) embark on a four-game road trip starting with Sunday’s matchup against the Golden State Valkyries.
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