Photo gallery: Storm Defeats Silver Stars in San Antonio, 91-86
Storm release
SAN ANTONIO – In a back-and-forth game that featured six lead changes and 12 ties, the Storm beat the San Antonio Silver Stars 91-86 on Friday night at the AT&T Center.
Camille Little had a double-double, leading the way for the Storm with 23 points and 10 rebounds. She also added three steals. Tina Thompson chipped in 21 points. The rest of the starters for Seattle, Temeka Johnson, Noelle Quinn and Tanisha Wright, scored 12 points.
The Silver Stars were paced by Jia Perkins with 21 points, Danielle Robinson with 20 and Shameka Christon with 19.
Temeka Johnson scored her 2,000th point in the third quarter, becoming the fourth Storm player to hit that milestone. Wright passed it just two games ago in Atlanta, and they join Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson.
The Storm jumped out to an early 15-4 lead, but allowed the Silver Stars to get back in it. The Storm and Silver Stars kept pace with each other from field, shooting 46.7% and 42.4% respectively, with the Storm taking a two-point lead into the half, 39-37.
With two minutes left in the game, the Silver Stars cut the lead to 84-80 with a Robinson three-point play. Seattle shot 92% from the free throw line, and nailed five down the stretch to win.
Postgame Quotes
Silver Stars Head Coach Dan Hughes
“I thought that offensively we came out a little sluggish. Then we evolved offensively and got into a better rhythm. Defensively I thought we never had a foothold in the game like we wanted to play. Offensively I thought we grew and had opportunities to score. We just didn’t do a great job of keeping them out of the paint. I thought we responded really well playing a little catch up. When you’re playing from behind you put yourself in tough situations. So we never really got the lead on them. Give Seattle credit they made some shots. They moved the ball well and they had five people in double figures. So give them credit for that.”
Silver Stars guard Jia Perkins
“This was one of those games where you have to find the rhythm and get things going. I think we have to get better defensively. I think we scored enough points to win. So we just have to stop the other team from scoring more points than us. It felt like every time we made a run they would answer with a three or whatever the case may be. We just have to stick with the game plan defensively. We have to focus on defense, because our offence runs through our defense. We have to have that defensive mentality from the jump.”
When asked with all of the injuries in games like these do you feel the need to step up…
“Yes. Me personally I took last game kind of personally. I have to do more for my team. It doesn’t always have to be offensively from me, but I have to show some kind of aggressiveness and some kind of leadership defensively. I think that will really help the team. Everyone in the league can score, but not everyone can play defense. I take pride in my defense and that will spark offense for me.”
Storm Head Coach Brian Agler
On the Storm’s post-play late in the game
“I think we started getting a little bit stagnant. They came out and pressured us, and we didn’t handle that very well. In the second half, we started playing inside through Camille (Little) and Tina (Thompson) and they both made some really good passes out of the post.”
On containing the Silver Stars defensively
“They were shooting the ball well. I thought we were better defensively, but even with us making plays on them, they hit some good shots. When Danielle Robinson can hit jumpers, that makes her double tough because she’s so quick. You’ve got to play containment on her. I thought (Jia) Perkins, (Shameka) Christon, and DeLisha (Milton-Jones) hit some real big perimeter shots for them, and then Danielle (Adams) down on the block was effective for a period of time.”
On playing through injuries to key players
“I think we’re playing well together, we’re moving the ball sharply, we’re running offense with a good pace, and we’re getting some key defensive stops. I wish we were a little more consistent defensively, because we do put a lot of time into that. We do make some big stops, and then we’ve got to rebound the basketball. We’re a little bit undersized, but we’ve got some guards that can rebound. Noelle Quinn can rebound the ball and she’s got some big boards for us. She and (Shekinna) Stricklen can rebound for us. I don’t have all of the answers, but I just know that we’re playing pretty well together.”
Storm center Camille Little
On the Silver Stars’ late run in the game
“We just relaxed and you can’t do that. We had a great start, took a break, and they took advantage of it. They’re a good team and they got comfortable hitting shots one after another. We can’t afford to do that. We did, but it was tough. It wasn’t an easy game. The whole time we had to work hard.”
On going forward as a team
“I think we disappointed ourselves in the start, and we didn’t play to the best of our abilities. We knew we were better than that and so we’ve just focused as a group so we can play better on both ends of the floor. We’ve been doing that and we’re going to try to continue doing that.”
