Bird helps Storm put out Fire

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two of the WNBA’s best young stars met for the first time on the court Sunday afternoon. One excelled and the other flamed out.

Sue Bird, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, had 14 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals as the Seattle Storm built an early lead and then held on for a 57-47 victory over the Portland Fire on Sunday.

Jackie Stiles, last year’s WNBA rookie of the year, was held to a career-low one point. Sylvia Crawley led the Fire (0-3) with 16 points. Portland has lost 13 consecutive regular-season games dating to last year.

“This is exactly how we approached this game: So goes Jackie, so goes Portland,” Storm coach Lin Dunn said. “I was pleased with the defensive job Sonja Henning did on Jackie Stiles.”

Henning held Stiles to 0 of 5 shooting and did a good job of denying Stiles the ball. Henning had four steals on the afternoon.

Simone Edwards had 13 points and six rebounds and Semeka Randall added 11 points for the Storm (1-1), who again played without injured center Lauren Jackson (sprained right ankle).

“It was a real team effort,” Dunn said. “We got a lot of help from a lot of people. Anytime you have a lot of people contribute, it’s a real plus.”

Seattle jumped out to an 18-2 lead 8:33 into the game. Portland committed almost as many turnovers (7) as field goal attempts (8) in that stretch and shot just 25 percent in the first half.

“I was disappointed in the first half that we didn’t come out with the same gusto Seattle did,” Fire coach Linda Hargrove said. “Our continuity was bad and we have no flow.”

The Fire was able to rally somewhat, using a 10-2 run to get within 20-12. But Seattle closed the half on a 9-2 run to take a 15-point lead into halftime.

Led by Crawley, Portland was able to get as close as six points in the second half, but turnovers and poor shooting again tripped up the Fire down the stretch. Portland shot 32 percent from the field for the game.

“We aren’t playing with a lot of confidence,” Stiles said. “Turnovers are killing us and our shots just aren’t going down. We need to be more mentally tough.”

Seattle wasn’t much better at 34.5 percent, but better ball handling – only 15 turnovers compared to 21 for the Fire – made the difference.

“It was a scrappy game,” Bird said. “We were in the locker room saying for the first few minutes we want to come out and be really aggressive and they kind of did that to us and cut the lead down a little bit. But we kept fighting back and held them off.”