Road trip begins on a sour note as Storm hand Sun second straight loss

Seattle — The best way to sum up the Connecticut Sun's 103-92 loss to the Seattle Storm late Friday night: Connecticut surrendered two four-point possessions. In the fourth quarter. Seattle took advantage at the free throw and 3-point lines before 7,094 at KeyArena.

The Storm had a 15-point edge at the free throw line as they made 27 of 34. Connecticut was 12 of 15. "We had a tough night keeping them off of the foul line," Sun head coach Curt Miller said. "When you take 19 less foul shots then the home team, you will not win many of those games."

Seattle also shot 44.4 percent from behind the arc (12 of 27).

The Sun (7-3) began the week with the WNBA's best record but have since lost consecutive games for the first time in the young season. They played at Phoenix on Saturday night without stars Chiney Ogwumike (knee) and Alyssa Thomas (shoulder).

Seattle (8-3) moved into a threeway tie for first place with the Los Angeles Sparks (7-2) and Phoenix (8-3).

It was the second time this season that a Connecticut opponent attempted 34 free throws. The Las Vegas Aces shot that many during the Sun's 101-65 win on May 20.

Seattle's 34 free throw attempts would tie it for the fifth-most attempts in a game this season, according to National Statistic.

"I just thought the foul line was going to be an important factor for us," Storm head coach Dan Hughes said. "We needed to penetrate and pitch. We needed to throw it in and throw it back out because their length inside is unreal.

"I thought we did a pretty good job of that most of the night. If you do that, then we're going to put them in situations where they had to come out of the paint, and we could pick up some fouls in those pursuits."

Breanna Stewart had 23 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals for Seattle. Natasha Howard,

who has been making a strong case for the league's Most Improved Player award, added a career-high 25 points with five rebounds.

Chiney Ogwumike was sensational offensively for Connecticut as she made 13 of 16 shots for a career-high 30 points with four rebounds before fouling out.

Jasmine Thomas added 29 points, six assists, five rebounds and three blocks for the Sun, and Jonquel Jones had 10 points and eight rebounds before she, too, fouled out.

It didn't help the Sun that starting forward Alyssa Thomas didn't play due to a right shoulder injury. She was injured during Wednesday's 95-91 home loss to the Washington Mystics.

Thomas has averaged 12 points and is third in the league in rebounding (9.9 rpg).

“To have play a whole game without your star player for the first time is always an adjustment,” Miller said. “She's our toughness. She's our warrior.”

Connecticut stumbled at the start as it made just 9 of 23 shots in the first quarter.

Seattle never trailed with the game being tied briefly at 3-all for 34 seconds less than two minutes into the game. It pulled away quickly and took its largest lead, 41-25, with six minutes, 58 seconds left in the first half.

“The first seven, eight games of the season, we were so focused on our offense,” Ogwumike said. “It was fun, it was exciting, and I think we fell in love with it. But we really need to fall in love with our defense because championship teams have great defense.”

“Seattle is playing really well,” Ogwumike said. “We need to figure out how to be a defensive team that can really push and go. Get the rebounds and let that fuel our offense when the shots aren't falling. We have to focus on our defensive pressure and everything else will fall in line.”

The Sun trailed by five with 7:47 left in the game when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was fouled while making a 28-foot shot. She made her free throw to push Seattle up, 87-78.

Mosqueda-Lewis scored 18 off the bench.

Thomas' layup cut Connecticut's deficit to 89-84 with 5:41 remaining.

Seattle answered with another four-point possession. Stewart started it with a free throw after being fouled away from the play. Three seconds later, Howard converted a three-point play to give the Storm a 93-84 lead with 5:23 left.

Both teams honored former coach Anne Donovan with a black stripe on their jerseys. Donovan, the 56-yearold Hall of Famer who died Wednesday, led the Storm to a WNBA championship in 2004. She also coached the Sun, Indiana Fever, Charlotte Sting and New York Liberty.