Sports: First-place Connecticut Sun win their fifth straight, beating Seattle, 83-79
Stricklen hits seven from long range as first-place Sun win fifth straight
Seattle — Shekinna Stricklen made a career-high seven 3-pointers to tie a franchise record, accounting for all 21 of her points in the Connecticut Sun's 83-79 victory over the Seattle Storm on Wednesday.
Stricklen was 7 of 10 from 3-point range. She equaled Nykesha Sales' team record from 2000.
Jasmine Thomas added 15 points, six assists and five steals to help Connecticut (11-7), in first place in the WNBA's Eastern Conference, win its fifth straight. Jonquel Jones had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Alyssa Thomas had 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
"I believe so," Stricklen said, asked if it was the best shooting night of her career. "I just felt good, my teammates set good screens for me, they were really looking for me. When A.T. (Alyssa Thomas) drives, she draws so much congestion and she's very good at passing out."
"Seattle does such a good job of congesting driving lanes," Sun coach Curt Miller said. "Their help side is always proactive and on point, so you've got to be able to kick out and make some shots to try to loosen that up. Stricklen really, really spaces the floor for us."
Breanna Stewart pulled Seattle to 78-77 with 3:18 left, but the Storm's next points came on Jewell Loyd's basket with 31 seconds to go, making it 8179. Connecticut missed on its next possession and Stewart was called for an offensive foul with 10.6 seconds left.
Courtney Williams made two free throws with 9.4 seconds left for a two-possession lead.
Stewart, the former UConn star, had 22 points and eight rebounds for Seattle (8-10), her fifth straight game of 20 points or more. Loyd added 17 points and six assists and UConn grad Sue Bird had 15 points and seven assists. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, also from UConn, played for the first time since sustaining a knee injury on May 26 and finished with two points in seven minutes.
Seattle scored 33 points in the second quarter, shooting 80 percent from the floor and 83.3 percent from 3-point range. It was the highest point total for the Storm in any quarter this season.
Still, Connecticut's Miller thought the Sun was OK offensively. His team just needed a few stops.
"Obviously, they had an incredible first half shooting and if we could get them to miss some shots, we could play downhill. We thought that was the key, that we were able to get out and run," Miller said.
"Even if it didn't lead to an easy basket, we got into actions faster. I'm really proud that we didn't panic when Seattle played so well offensively in the first half."
Connecticut will be in action again today when it travels to Los Angeles to take on the Sparks. Game time is set for 10:30 p.m. The Sun are 102 in the last 12 games.