Big 3rd Quarter Propels Lynx Past Storm, 79-72

Minnesota secured their 21st victory of the season on Friday night, due in part to some great bench play and sound defense.

The Lynx defeated the Seattle Storm for the 13th time in a row at Target Center and now hold an 18-4 all-time record against the Western Conference foe.

Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore performed extremely well in their last game before heading to the Olympics, combining for 41 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and four steals.

The entire Lynx bench had great overall games with Natasha Howard leading the second-squad with 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting, and three offensive boards in only 16 minutes of action.

Rookie sensation Breanna Stewart had a team-high 18 points for the Storm, along with eight rebounds. Guards Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird also played well for the opposition, scoring 16 points a piece and combining for 11 assists.

Numbers game:

10: The Lynx did a tremendous job all game with positioning in the paint, which helped lead the home team to out-rebounding the Storm by this many.

24: On top of cleaning the glass all game, Minnesota dropped 44 points in the paint on the night; adding up to be this many more than the Storm could muster.

0: Your most unusual stat of the night is the fact that this many starts had a positive plus/minus rating. Every bench player for the Lynx had at least an 11 plus/minus rating which speaks to how effective their play was on the night.

34: Unfortunately, Friday night’s game was the last one for the Lynx for this many days. Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore will all be participating in the Summer Olympics over the next five weeks.

Leader of the Pack: Sylvia Fowles

Playing like she was on a mission all evening, Minnesota’s 6’6 center dominated Seattle’s bigs and put up a sensational stat line of: 20 points, 12 boards, two dimes, three steals and two blocks.