Courtney Williams capped her 20-point effort by sinking an important 3-pointer in the final minute, and the Minnesota Lynx held on for a 91-87 win over the host Seattle Storm on Tuesday night.
Jessica Shepard tallied 13 points and 13 rebounds for Minnesota (25-5), which won its third game in a row. Kayla McBride finished with 14 points and made all nine of her free-throw attempts.
Nneka Ogwumike scored 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting to lead Seattle (16-14), which lost its third game in a row. Erica Wheeler finished with 19 points.
Minnesota prevailed in its first game without All-Star forward Napheesa Collier, who is sidelined because of a sprained right ankle. She is expected to miss a minimum of two weeks.
DiJonai Carrington made her Lynx debut and finished with 13 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Minnesota acquired Carrington from the Dallas Wings on Sunday.
Before the game, the Storm bolstered their roster by acquiring All-Star Brittney Sykes from the Washington Mystics for Alysha Clark and a 2026 first-round pick. Sykes, who is averaging 15.4 points, did not play. She could make her team debut Friday night at Las Vegas.
The Lynx outscored the Storm 56-44 in the second half.
Williams made a 3-pointer to increase Minnesota’s lead to 85-78 with 33.6 seconds to go.
Ogwumike answered with a 3-pointer to pull Seattle within four with 31.4 seconds left.
McBride made two free throws to put the Lynx on top 87-81 with 29.5 seconds remaining, but Seattle refused to concede. Skylar Diggins knocked down a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 87-84 with 22.2 seconds left.
Two more free throws by McBride made it 89-84 with 19.3 seconds remaining.
Wheeler hit a 3-pointer with 7.3 seconds to go. That cut the Storm’s deficit to two, but McBride added two free throws to finish the scoring.
The Storm relied on a strong finish to the second quarter to seize a 43-35 lead at the half.
The Lynx pulled within 34-33 when Williams drained a pull-up jump shot with 1:54 remaining in the second quarter.
The Storm closed the half on a 9-2 run to go on top by eight points.
Minnesota led 20-19 at the end of the first quarter.
–Field Level Media
