Arlington, Tex. – The Dallas Wings were unable to contain the Seattle Storm in the fourth quarter Sunday, losing the second straight game of their home stand, 97-76.
Breanna Stewart led all scorers with 28 points and 12 rebounds for Seattle. Dallas was led by Liz Cambage with 23 points and eight rebounds. Cambage scored 20 of those points in the first half, which was her largest point total in the first two quarters this season. But the Storm defense limited Cambage to just three points in the second half.
Stewart said she was trying to win by doing what she does best.
“I’m here, I’m playing because I want to win this game, I’m just a competitive player,” the All-Star forward said. “You know, there comes a time when you don’t worry about being tired – everybody’s tired. And you just do things to make better plays.”
The game began with the teams battling with runs of their own, but after the Dallas was able to tie it at 68 in the third quarter, Seattle began to pull away. Storm coach Dan Hughes said the game came down to the last nine minutes, when his team went on a 22-0 run.
“I think we were able to defend, rebound, and then play back at them. And that was a hard thing to do Cambage had periods where they do it, they attacked us,” Hughes said. “We played back and forth and back and forth. But we got a little foothold defensively late, and I thought that was the difference.”
The Wings entered the game with their opponents averaging 81 points per game, and after a signature rout of Los Angeles two nights earlier. But Seattle threw double, and at times triple teams at Cambage, clouding the vision of the 6-8 center, which created bad outlet passes. Dallas was held scoreless for over five minutes in the fourth quarter.
Coach Fred Williams said it was their transition defense that hurt them the most.
“We just didn’t get back fast enough. Our bigs and our guards didn’t protect back. I thought we left our minds a bit from the LA game and didn’t really show up,” Williams said. “It was a lesson learned and we have to get ready to play on the road in a back-to-back situation to get ourselves going again.”
The Wings have fallen to 6-6 and will head west to play the Los Angeles Sparks on June 26, and the Las Vegas Aces June 27.