SEATTLE — The Seattle Storm felt the bitterness of a second straight close loss Sunday afternoon, dropping a contest with the Indiana Fever 78-74 to fall to 16-13 on the season.
The matchup was especially important to Seattle’s big picture, as Indiana improved to 17-12 to leapfrog the Storm for sole possession of fifth in the WNBA standings with 15 games to play.
The Fever led for a majority of the game and endured a late rally by the Storm to secure the road win without superstar Caitlin Clark, who is dealing with a lingering groin injury.
With the Storm already coming off a failed rally on Friday against Los Angeles, this one stung for head coach Noelle Quinn. Quinn didn’t think fatigue from the double-overtime loss to the LA played a role in Sunday’s defeat.
“We executed really well in finding the looks that we wanted … (but) we want to not just have moral victories,” Quinn said.
She was referring to the five 3-pointers Seattle missed to tie the game in the 67 seconds of the contest. Erica Wheeler (nine points, five steals) had a shot in the corner while Skylar Diggins (13 points, six rebounds) missed twice. Nneka Ogwumike (16 points) missed as well on a decent look while Gabby Williams (12 points, nine rebounds) didn’t convert on a game-tying off-balance shot with five seconds left.
Despite solid looks, it was just one of those days for the Storm. Seattle went 2-15 from range.
With Clark sidelined, the Fever was set to lean on All-Stars Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston in the second matchup of the season with the Storm. Indiana took the first game of the season series 94-86 in June.
The Storm handled Mitchell and Boston well in the early going, as Ogwumike and Magbegor stayed physical in denying Boston the ball down low. But that added attention left sharpshooter Sophie Cunningham (17 points) open as she scored 10 points in the first half while former Storm champion center Natasha Howard (game-high 21 points) thrived off the attention to Boston with 12 points through the first two frames.
Although all Storm starters got on the board early on, Seattle shot just 11-27 from the field in the first half and trailed 42-34 heading into the third.
It was a momentum struggle that third quarter, as tough a tough finish from Indiana’s Aari McDonald and Cunningham’s fourth 3-pointer made it a 13-point game five minutes in. Seattle’s second-rated defense allowed just three points for the remainder of the quarter and slashed Indiana’s advantage to four.
Boston found her groove to score 10 of her 16 points in the fourth, however, and Seattle was right back where it started, down 12 with just under five minutes remaining. Just like the previous period, though, the Storm allowed five points for the rest of the game by forcing turnovers and leaning on its on-ball defense — all while playing on its back foot.
“We took off our blitzes on Mitchell, and we just started playing solid,” Quinn said of her approach to stopping the perimeter scorer.
But it was Mitchell, who finished with eight points on 3-16 shooting, who would score on an open drive to the basket with eight seconds left to put Indiana ahead by three. That was the final touch to a game in which Indiana scored 52 points in the paint.
After allowing over 60 such points on Thursday, Ogwumike and Quinn agreed postgame that Seattle needs to do a better job of meeting drivers at the point of attack.
In better news for Seattle, 2025 No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga (21 minutes, 12 points, five rebounds) played the closing minutes off the bench. The 19-year-old hit a gutsy fallaway shot over Howard to cut the lead to one with 10 seconds left and sparked Seattle in a slow second quarter.
“When the coach keeps you on the court in the closing moments, of course, that’s a great show of trust,” Malonga said. “I just ask (Quinn) what she wants from me … and do what needed to be done.”
Despite Malonga’s youth and her development being the primary sidebar of a competitive season, Ogwumike views the 6-foot-6 rookie as an asset already.
“She’s not just a spark for coming off the bench. She is artillery,” Ogwumike said.
With a Tuesday night home matchup against the top team in the WNBA, 24-5 Minnesota, looming, the Storm will need all the artillery it can muster. Ogwumike is confident her team will bring a high level of effort regardless of the opponent.
“We’re not backing down given the results of these games,” Ogwumike said. “Everyone is fighting for their lives right now.”
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