MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Lynx finally figured out how to beat the Seattle Storm.
Janel McCarville scored a season-high 22 points to lead the Lynx to a 74-69 victory over Seattle on Sunday night, Minnesota’s first win in three tries against Seattle this season.
Maya Moore added 14 points for the Lynx (12-5), who have won three of four. Devereaux Peters had 12 points and Lindsay Whalen scored 10. Seimone Augustus, Minnesota’s second-leading scorer at 17.2 points per game, missed the game because of bursitis in her left knee.
“Obviously their post players stepped up and got shots,” Storm coach Brian Agler said. “That was a big difference to me. I thought they came out a lot more energized than we did, especially in the first half. … When I sat there and watched the game, the two things that jumped out to me: their energy getting the loose balls, out-rebounding us, and their post players hitting shots.”
Sue Bird scored 21 points, two shy of her career high, and had seven assists to lead Seattle (7-11).
Jenna O’Hea, coming off a career-high 15-point performance against Minnesota on Friday at KeyArena, followed that up with a 14-point effort. Alysha Clark and Shekinna Stricklen each added seven points.
Minnesota led by as many as 14 points in the opening half and took a 42-32 lead into the locker room at the break.
“I think our start wasn’t great,” Bird said. “We were down 10 at halftime, so we had to come from behind. That takes a lot of energy and I think although we did a great job and we feel good about coming back, it doesn’t feel so good to lose.”
Seattle rallied to take the lead with 5:01 remaining on jumper by O’Hea, and again with 3:26 to play on an Angel Robinson basket, but Minnesota closed the game on a 12-6 run.
Bird notched her 1,000th career rebound in the game, becoming the first WNBA player to hit 4,000 career points, 2,000 career assists and 1,000 career rebounds.
Seattle’s Camille Little made her 107th straight start for the Storm, passing Bird for the most consecutive starts in franchise history.
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