Los Angeles – The Seattle Storm earned their most dominant win of the season Monday in routing the Los Angeles Sparks, 82-64. Rookie Flau’jae Johnson lead the way with 23 points and five rebounds, while Natisha Hiedeman added 15 points and Jada Melbourne, 11.
The Sparks, who were coming off of a week-long break in play, were relatively non-responsive as Johnson reeled off the first 13 points of the game for her team. The 6-17 Storm trailed 3-2 only once, in the first minute, en route to just their third win in the past 16 games. They lead by as much as 26 points in the latter half of the matchup, and held their hosts to 34 percent shooting and 17 percent from behind the arc.
Melbourne said Seattle’s plan was to keep their opponents from moving the ball in transition.
“We knew coming into the game that once the Sparks get going, they really get going,” she said. “Credit to Flau’jae….who came out and set the tone. We gave up good shots for great shots. Credit to the whole team for finding one another and making each other successful.”
Los Angeles (8-11) is without top scorer Kelsey Plum, and reserve Cameron Brink, who are both injured. But even All-Star Nneka Ogwumike, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and prolific scorer Dearica Hamby, who lead the team with 17 points, couldn’t stop the tall and youthful Storm. Head coach Lynne Roberts had few answers as to what went wrong for her team.
“I don’t know. We just weren’t good offensively,” she said.
Seattle coach Sonia Raman was especially happy with her team on the other end of the floor.
“I was pleased to see our defensive performance tonight,” she said. “It was a start-to-finish statement on that end of the floor. We want to make our identity defensive, because it’s going to fuel us on the other end. It’s a good step forward for us, and a good step in our season.”
Melbourne said the game was a confidence-builder for the team.
“We knew this season would be up and down, and the fact that…..we were able to blow out a team like that, we haven’t done that this season,” she said. “We’re building, brick by brick.”
