Storm lose again

CHICAGO — It has been said that Chicago Sky rookie guard and Gonzaga alum Courtney Vandersloot models her game after Seattle Storm point guard Sue Bird.

Tuesday night, Vandersloot put on display all of the lessons that she has learned from Bird in the Sky’s 76-69 victory over the Storm.
< br>Vandersloot scored 11 points and dished out seven assists, but more importantly was the floor general who orchestrated successful possessions down the stretch leading to victory. She found the WNBA’s leading scorer Sylvia Fowles for a traditional three-point play with just 39.3 seconds remaining

in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

“The big thing is that we kept the ball in her hands a lot,” Chicago head coach Pokey Chatman said. “I told her in transition to not give it up and that we need the ball in her hands. I tell her that we trust her — we believe in her.”

Vandersloot made a believer out of Bird as well.

“She definitely has a calm demeanor about her and doesn’t really get rattled, she just kind of plays her game,” Bird said of Vandersloot. “That is good enough for a point guard and a young player. And you can see it, she has a role out there and she is going to play to the best of her ability.”

Fowles scored 24 points to lead the Sky.

“They got her the ball every single time in the second half,” Storm center Ashley Robinson said. “And I mean, she is a great player and probably one of the best post players in the world, so she is going to get her points. We tried to limit her as much as possible, but they got her the ball and were smart.”

Fowles had a little help from guard Epiphanny Prince, who scored 23 points, including 9-for-15 shooting from the floor.

“I think she got her mojo back,” Fowles said of Prince. “That’s what we need from her every night and I’m glad she helped us get this win.”

The WNBA All-Star game reserves were announced during the second quarter of the nationally televised broadcast on ESPN2. Fowles, Prince and Vandersloot were all named reserves for the Eastern Conference.

The Storm were able to reverse one trend that has plagued them away from KeyArena this season, never digging themselves a hole that they had to climb out of, but the end result was the same.

It wasn’t the way the Storm wanted to finish their three-game road trip, losing all and dropping to 7-7 on the season. The seventh loss for the Storm is more than they had all season in their 2010 championship run in the regular season and playoffs combined.

Bird struggled in the first half, missing her first nine shots from the field.

The second half was a different story for the Western Conference’s starting point guard in this Saturday’s all-star game. Bird made 10 of her final 14 shots to finish with a season-high 26 points. It was the fifth time this season that Bird, the leading vote-getter in the Western Conference in the all-star fan voting, has scored over 20 points.

“She’s a great player and you can tell,” Vandersloot said of Bird. “She is what makes that team go and regardless of the score, she had a good game. There were parts of the game where she really exposed us, but luckily we buckled down and got stops.”

Part of the reason for Bird’s second half resurgence was due to the screens being set by her teammates.

“I am like the quarterback of a football team, and you have to give a lot of credit to your offensive line, right? What the girls do screening wise, we run a ton of pick and rolls and there is no way that I would get a glimpse if it wasn’t for my teammates,” Bird said.

Bird wasn’t the only one who chipped in for the Storm offensively. Robinson earned her first start of the 2011 WNBA season, scoring a career-high 14 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking three shots.

But after Robinson fouled out of the game with 3:03 to play in the fourth quarter, the Sky were able to take advantage of the Storm’s lack of size in the paint.

The Sky outscored the Storm 9-1 after Robinson’s sixth foul.

Seattle was able to hang in the game despite a poor shooting first half as a team, most notably by Bird.

But as Bird has done so many times in her 10-year WNBA career, she knocked down an all-important three-pointer and drew a foul with just 1.6 seconds remaining in the first half. It was the first field goal Bird made in the first half, and after completing the four-point play, the Storm led 33-30 going into the locker room.

The momentum didn’t carry over into the third quarter.

Chicago started the third period on a 9-0 run, highlighted by seven points by Prince to take a six-point lead. The rest of the half played out like a prize fight with both punchers trading blows, but in the end, the Vandersloot connection to Fowles delivered the knockout blow.

“I just don’t think that we came out strong in the second half,” Storm head coach Brian Agler said. “At 1:20 (into the second half) we were down by six points, and they scored quite a few points off of our turnovers. It’s not just one major thing. We turned it over in critical times, we missed some free throws, defensive breakdowns, it is a combination of multiple things. But we are not sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves. We have a lot of the season to be played, and hey, we are going to keep working on it and get ready for the next one.”

The nine-point margin when the final buzzer sounded was the largest lead by either team in a game that featured five ties and 12 lead changes.

The Storm get a much needed game at KeyArena this Thursday when they face the San Antonio Silver Stars, before the WNBA takes its mid-season all-star break.

Aaron Lommers covers the Seattle Storm for The Herald. Read his blog at www.heraldnet.com/storm and follow him on twitter @aaronlommers.