The Seattle Storm forced the defending WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx to work hard for a 92-80 home victory on Sunday before 11,834 fans at Target Center and an ESPN2 television audience. Jewell Loyd led the Storm with 20 points.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Seattle Storm forced the defending WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx to work hard for a 92-80 home victory on Sunday before 11,834 fans at Target Center and an ESPN2 television audience.
Seattle led 47-41 at halftime, but Minnesota took control in the third quarter and outscored the Storm 32-18.
Jewell Loyd led the Storm with 20 points. Ramu Tokashiki added 13 points, Crystal Langhorne and Sue Bird had 11 each, and Breanna Stewart had 10 for the Storm, which made 8 of 18 three-point attempts.
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Minnesota (22-5) leads the league by a half-game over the Los Angeles Sparks (21-5), who lost 70-66 at Phoenix.
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The Storm beat Los Angeles 79-72 on Friday night in Seattle.
Lindsay Whalen scored a season-high 24 points for the Lynx, and Sylvia Fowles added 11 points and 11 rebounds. Seimone Augustus had 18 points, Maya Moore 13 and Jia Perkins scored 10 for Minnesota.
The Lynx pulled away with an 11-2 run to close the third quarter ahead 73-65.
The Storm led as late as 63-62 with 2:08 left in the third quarter, but got no closer than eight points in the fourth quarter while the Lynx built their largest lead at 88-73.
“It was a subpar first half for us,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “More than anything, we were not making it very difficult for them to score. And just passing and catching the ball. Seattle was putting pressure on us, and we couldn’t pass and catch.”
Minnesota lost its previous game, 84-80 at Connecticut.
Whalen took over in the third quarter against the Storm.
“Lindsay Whalen said it’s not going to happen to us today,” Reeve told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. “She turned it up and played with great pace.”
That was by design.
“I kind of felt like the pace was a little slow,” Whalen said. “My thing was just to push it as much as I can. Sometimes, that’s just what a point guard has to do. You have to push the tempo and get up court quick.”
The Lynx scored the first 11 points, only to watch the Storm start making three-point baskets.
“I think we were a little frustrated,” Reeve told the Star Tribune. “As hard as we were playing, we were doing some good things, but we look up and they’re still shooting 60 percent from three and they already had their five three-pointers. We were hoping to hold them to five for the whole game.”