Led by 24 points from Skylar Diggins, the Seattle Storm nabbed an easy 97-81 home win over the Connecticut Sun on Friday night.
Seattle (10-6) never trailed, scoring 24 points in the first quarter and opening up a 44-43 lead on a pair of Ezi Magbegor free throws with 3:04 left in the half. Connecticut was never within single digits after that.
The Storm stretched the lead to 31 in the second half at 91-60 on a Dominique Malonga bank shot before clearing their injury-shortened bench.
Diggins, who shot 8-for-14 from the field and dished five assists, was one of five Storm players scoring in double figures. Gabby Williams flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Nneka Ogwumike added 16 points and Magbegor tallied 12 points. Malonga, this year’s No. 2 overall pick, added a career-best 11 points off the bench.
The Storm were 34-for-69 (49.3 percent) overall and 20-for-23 (87 percent) from the foul line. Seattle topped 90 points for the fifth time on the season and briefly threatened their season high of 102 points.
Connecticut (2-14) lost its eighth in a row and suffered a third straight blowout loss since the injury to guard Sabrina Mabrey.
Rookie reserve Aneesah Morrow paced the Sun with 20 points and 11 rebounds, each a season best. Bria Hartley scored 19 points and dished out six assists and Jacy Shelton added 15 points. Leading scorer Tina Charles (16.2 points per game) was limited to seven points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field.
The Sun have lost all three games since Mabrey’s injury by a combined 66 points. The standout guard is expected to miss at least a few more games with a knee injury.
–Field Level Media
