Friday night wins for Storm, Sky and Dream
Saturday 12 September 2020 08:18, UK
Six players hit double figures in points as the Seattle Storm cruised to victory over the Phoenix Mercury, while Arike Ogunbowale's 38-point night wasn't enough to lead the Dallas Wings past the Chicago Sky.
Jordin Canada scored 13 points and the Storm routed the Mercury 83-60 on Friday night for their seventh victory in a row.
First-place Seattle will close the regular season Sunday against Las Vegas, taking a 1 1/2-game lead over the Aces into the final. Phoenix dropped into fifth in its regular-season finale.
Seattle led by 24 points at halftime and started the second half on a 14-0 run as Phoenix didn't score for the first six-plus minutes. Canada scored 11 first-half points, Natasha Howard had 10 and Seattle led 50-26 at the break after shooting 54.5 percent from the field.
Phoenix went just six of 31 shooting (19.4 percent), including two of 14 from distance.
Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird did not play for Seattle. Howard scored 12 points, and Jewell Loyd, Mercedes Russell, Ezi Magbegor and Crystal Langhorne each had 10.
Alysha Clark was the only Storm starter not in double figures with nine points and seven rebounds.
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough scored 24 points to lead Phoenix, while Diana Taurasi scored five points in 12 minutes and Sophie Cunningham added 10 points.
Cheyenne Parker had 23 points and seven rebounds, Ruthy Hebard added 22 points and eight rebounds and the Chicago Sky beat the Dallas Wings 95-88, spoiling Ogunbowale's 38-point game.
Dallas are tied with Atlanta for ninth place, a half-game behind Washington for the final playoff spot. The Wings will face New York to close the regular season Sunday. Sixth-seeded Chicago (12-10) will face No. 7 Connecticut in the playoffs next week.
Courtney Vandersloot added 15 points, five rebounds and 12 assists for Chicago, while Kahleah Copper had 12 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Vandersloot became the fifth player in WNBA history to reach 1,900 assists, joining Ticha Penicheiro, Sue Bird, Lindsay Whalen and Diana Taurasi. Vandersloot finished with 219 assists (9.95 per game) to set a single-season record for assists per game.
Ogunbowale was 13 of 26 from the field, three of six from distance, and made nine of 10 at the free-throw line for Dallas. Marina Mabrey and Kayla Thornton each scored 11 points.
Liz Cambage was the last WNBA player to reach the 40-point mark in 2018. Ogunbowale scored 39 points in a win over Washington on Sunday.
Rookie Chennedy Carter scored 22 points and Courtney Williams had 20 points and nine rebounds as the Atlanta Dream beat the Connecticut Sun 82-75.
Atlanta entered a game behind eighth-place Dallas for the final playoff spot, while Connecticut had already clinched a playoff spot, sitting in seventh.
Betnijah Laney had 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, and Monique Billings added 13 points and eight boards for Atlanta, who close out the regular season against Washington on Sunday.
DeWanna Bonner led Connecticut with 17 points and eight rebounds, Natisha Hiedeman and Kaila Charles each scored 13 points, and Alyssa Thomas had nine points and nine rebounds. The Sun's next game will be in the playoffs.
Bonner scored 11 points in the first half, making all three of her shots from behind the arc as the Sun held a 36-33 lead.
