On their road to repeating as WNBA champions and winning their third title in four years, the Seattle Storm continued their winning ways in beating the Dallas Wings 105-102 in overtime, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Jewell Loyd at the buzzer.
The Storm currently have the longest active win streak in the WNBA at six games improving their overall record to 7-1. Meanwhile, the Wings dropped to 2-5 on the season.
Jewell Loyd finished with 25 points on 73% shooting from the field and knocked down four 3-pointers including the game winner. She added seven assists to her totals.
Breanna Stewart recorded 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals. Stephanie Talbot finished with 21 points on 67% shooting and connected on four 3-pointers while also posting four rebounds and three assists. Sue Bird scored just five points but also had 10 assists and three steals.
Marina Mabrey led the Wings scoring 24 points followed by Arike Ogunbowale who finished with 22 points, eight assists and four rebounds. Each connected on four 3-pointers in the game. Satou Sabally and Allisha Gray each came off the bench to record 18 and 15 points respectively with the former adding nine rebounds.
Sabally was played most of the second half for the Wings in favor of their top overall pick in the 2021 WNBA draft Charli Collier. Although Collier started the game, she was benched for most of the second half as the team struggled with her in the lineup.
The first half was hotly contested with both teams trading the lead for much of the first quarter. However, the Storm would take control of the game in the second holding the lead for the entire period.
At the end of the first half, the Storm led 57-54. Stewart paced the Storm with 15 points while Mabrey and Ogunbowale did their best to keep the Wings in the game scoring 31 of their team’s 54 first half points.
The Wings continued to respond to any run made by the Storm in the third quarter ending with them holding a 76-75 lead going into the fourth.
However, the Storm would take back the momentum in the final quarter of regulation taking a 10-point lead with 4:12 remaining. Once again, the Wings responded well thanks in part to Sabally and Gray hitting big shots for them in the final minutes to tie the game sending it to overtime.
With 38.7 seconds remaining in the game, Loyd scored a layup for the Storm to tie the game. The Wings would get two subsequent chances to take the lead but were unsuccessful leading to the Storm getting the ball back with 0.8 seconds remaining.
In the final possession of the game, Loyd set a down screen popping out to the 3-point line where she hoisted up a three for the win. The referees went to review the play deeming it a good basket awarding the Storm the win.