Seattle records 37 assists on 44 made baskets, tying franchise record with 111 points in key victory over league-leading Sky
Seattle’s offense was clicking on all cylinders, matching a franchise record with 111 points with a WNBA record 37 assists, winning a thriller 111-100 at Chicago on Tuesday night at Wintrust Arena.
The Storm improves to 21-13, winning the season series with the Sky by taking two of three games and beating Chicago at Wintrust Arena for the first time since 2018. The league-leading Sky are denied a chance to clinch the best regular-season record, falling to 25-9 on the year.
Records fell left and right in the barnburner with Seattle tallying a league-best 37 assists in the game, beating the previous WNBA-best mark of 35 done three times including once earlier this season. The Storm had 37 assists on 44 made baskets (84.1%), also a WNBA record for a team with 40+ field goals made.
Breanna Stewart tallied a team-high 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting, adding nine rebounds and five assists. After a slow (for her) start to the game, Stewart tallied 17 of her points in the second half, hitting 7-of-11 from the field over the final 20 minutes.
Gabby Williams had an impressive game, scoring 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting including 2-of-3 from three-point range, adding seven assists and three steals. Jewell Loyd, coming off a rare game without a field goal, connected on five of her first six from the field and finished with 18 points with four boards and three assists. Loyd has scored at least 17 points in all 10 games she has played in Chicago over her WNBA career.
Seattle got off to a hot start in the game, breaking a 12-12 tie with a 19-7 run to open a 31-19 lead at the 1:43 mark. The Storm opened the game hitting 16-of-21 from the field for a season-best 76.2 FG% in the quarter, ending the period with a 38-26 lead.
In the second, Chicago opened with five quick points to cut the deficit to nine only to see Seattle rattle off nine quick points to double the lead and go up 47-29 at the 8:05 mark. The Sky again closed to within 12 with 4:03 to go before the half, but the Storm answered back again with an 8-0 run to take its largest lead of the game to that point at 62-42 with 2:37 left in the period. Chicago would rally again and made it an 11-point game at the half at 66-55.
Seattle ended up setting a WNBA record with 24 assists in the first half, scoring a franchise record 66 points while shooting 66.7% from the field.
Chicago opened the third quarter strong, pulling to within single-digits on a three-pointer at the 7:21 mark which made it 71-62. Seattle answered right back with a three-point play by Stewart to stretch the lead to 12, and moments later, used an 11-0 run to take a 21-point lead at 85-64 with 4:46 left in the quarter. The Storm stretched the lead to 22 at 90-68 at the 2:48 mark, but Chicago closed the quarter with 11-straight points and the teams headed to the fourth with Seattle up 90-79.
Ezi Magbegor kicked off the fourth with a three-pointer to stretch the lead again to 14 and the back-and-forth battle continued. Chicago made things interesting late with a 6-0 run to close the gap to eight at 101-93 with 3:22 and still trailed by eight with 2:06 left. But Stewart hit a corner three to stretch the lead to 11 again and Sue Bird would clinch the game with a three-pointer with less than a minute left.
Magbegor finished with 13 points off the bench, connecting on 6-of-7 from the field while Bird recorded 10 points with eight assists and three steals.
The victory helps the Storm move closer to clinching home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, holding a one-game lead and the tiebreaker over the Mystics with both teams having two games left in the season.
Seattle heads to Minnesota for its penultimate regular-season game Friday, taking on the Lynx at 6:00 p.m. PT (8:00 p.m. CT) at Target Center. The game can be seen on ESPN2.
