Storm lose an exciting OT thriller to the Washington Mystics, 84-82.

Breanna Stewart set a career high tonight with 25 points, playing most of the game against her former teammate from Connecticut, in Stefanie Dolson, but it wasn't enough as Seattle would fall to the Washington Mystics 84-82 in Over Time.  The Mystics came out on fire.  At one point, late in the first quarter, they were shooting nearly 70% from the floor.  Meanwhile, Seattle struggled with their shot most of the game shooting under 40%, until the 4th quarter.

After the game, I asked Breanna Stewart on what it was like playing against her former teammate Stefanie Dolson, "Anytime I get to play against players I played with in college, it's cool.  For Stef and Bria, I played two years with them at UConn and we did great things there.  And I know they're going to continue to do great things at this level."

While Stewart was playing well.  The rest of the team struggled.  Both Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd really struggled in the first half.  Loyd had just three points and Bird had only two.  Sue would pick her game up a lot in the 2nd half, scoring 13 second half points to finish the game with 15 points and five assists.

When asked if she felt she needed to lead her team back and take care in the 2nd half, Bird said, "There's a certain level you want to play at.  I think you can't let missed shots and poor play dictate what happens the rest of the game.  It's not always easy to do that .... Luckily, it was able to shift, but you know, it's on me too.  I need to come out and play better, with a little more poise especially."

On the comeback from down 16 points, Bird said, "The fact that we were down 16 is actually more telling in terms of a young team.  That you can't relax at any point in this league.  You really can't.  3, 4, 5 possessions of a lull can end up being a 15 point lead like that *snaps fingers*.  So I think that's really more what we're going to learn from.  Now is it great that we came back and didn't give up?  Absolutely!  But we're a young team .... we really need to focus on starting off much better."

The Storm made a huge rally in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Washington Mystics 22-10 to send the game into OT.  The crowd was whipped into a frenzy when Jewell Loyd hit a layup from a Sue Bird assist with under eight seconds left to play.  And the Storm were able to play good enough defense to force the game into OT.

Seattle had a balanced attack tonight with all five starts scoring at least nine points or more.  Breanna Stewart led all players with 25 points, she added 7 rebounds, four steals, and four blocks.  Bird added 15 points, and Alysha Clark and Crystal Langhorne both added 10 points for the Storm.

The Washington Mystics were led by Emma Meesseman who had 19 points and 13 rebounds.  Taylor Hill contributed 18 points and five rebounds.  And Ivory Latta had 16 points off the bench, including a corner 3 pointer late in OT, that helped seal the victory for Washington.

Coach Jenny Boucek's Post-Game Interview:
Q: What does it say about your young team to be able to come back down 16 at one point and send the game into Overtime?

A: "I think it says that we're a young team, to get down 16.  It shows what we're capable of doing.  I was concerned that we might think we played the top-three teams in the league and have a little bit of relaxation.  Every team in this league is good.  Washington is a playoff team and they're a very good team.  I just think it took us awhile to get to the level that we needed to get to.  Hopefully we'll learn from this, that you must respect every player and every team in this league.  I don't think it was conscious, I don't think it was major, but it was subtle enough to get us in a hole." said Boucek

Q: Sue Bird is playing a ton of minutes, 39 tonight.  Monica didn't see the court, is there any injury or just she's not playing right now?

A: "You know, you can't play a really deep rotation if you want to stay in a rhythm; especially when you're a team trying to find a rhythm.  Monica is fine.  Different nights, it's going to be different people with this team in terms of our rotations.  The minutes are deceptive, because it was an over time game.  But we're just trying to find good groups out there.  We'll ride that as best we can, but some of it is going to be matchups.  We just got all of our people back, so we're settling into a rotation."

Q: This was the 2nd game in a row, where it was six-seven minutes into the third quarter where you only scored two points.  What can you guys do differently moving forward to change that?

A: "I don't know if it has to do with the quarter, I just think that we're having some periods where we look unsure.  And I think that's somewhat to be expected with a new group together.  But we need to try and minimize those."

Q: (On the defensive struggles early in the game) Is that just communication out there?  Or how do you make that change sooner?

A: "No, this team is very different than the 3 teams we just played.  And as much as you talk about it, it's a different feel, a different emphasis.  It just took us a long time to figure it out.  As much as we talked about it, it took us a while to figure out how to take away their main things and make them take tougher shots.  Because it's a different look, different team, different style, and so our defensive rhythm got thrown off by that."

Key Notes from the game:
This was the Mystics first win in Seattle since 2005; breaking the longest streak of any team.
The Storm were outrebounded by double-digits, 38-27.
The Storm were outscored in the first 3 quarters and OT
Seattle forced 16 turnovers and limited themselves to 11.
Jenn O'Hea played her first minutes of the season and scored six points off the bench.
Abby Bishop did not play for the 3rd straight game - Coach's Decision
Monica Wright did not play after only playing 5 minutes in the last game - Coach's Decision