Lynx Bounce Back, Complete Season Sweep Of Mercury

Mitchell Hansen
Web Editorial Associate
Twitter

Coming off of a road loss to the New York Liberty on Sunday, the Minnesota Lynx bounced back in a big way Tuesday in St. Paul.

The Lynx topped the Phoenix Mercury 105-69 in front of an announced crowd of 10,723 at Xcel Energy Center.

With the win, Minnesota completed the 4-0 season series sweep of Phoenix this season.

“I thought that our team was in a good place. I know we didn’t win the game in New York and we had some offensive struggles, but I just like where our team is and I knew we would bounce back and be hard to play against,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said after the game. “Defensively, we are awfully difficult to play against.”

Maya Moore led the way for the Lynx, finishing with 21 points and three assists. Sylvia Fowles tallied her 16th double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Plenette Pierson had nine points and two rebound, Seimone Augustus had eight points and three assists and Renee Montgomery had eight points and seven assists.

“I think we’ve been in a pretty good place lately with just getting back to moving, player movement and to keep the flow going for us offensively,” Moore said. “That’s always great for me individually as a cutter, I like to move and can get into the flow. Staying connected with my teammates, setting good screens, all of us being on the same page, that helps all of us not just me. We are all able to do what we do better when we have the movement. I thought we did that pretty well tonight.”

The bench had a nice game for Minnesota, combining for 45 points. Jia Perkins had 18 points and three rebounds, Natasha Howard had 12 points and eight rebounds, Alexis Jones had a career-high 11 points and Temi Fagbenle added four points and three rebounds.

The Lynx finished the game with a total of 12 threes, which is a season-high. Eight of those threes came from the bench.

“We bring that energy and when (the starters) don’t have it, we have it so we can try and give them the energy when we come back in,” Jones said. “It’s good when we are playing good, because it makes the starters play good and makes the whole team just look good as we are having a good flow of the game.”

The Mercury were led by Monique Currie with 14 points and three assists. Brittney Griner had nine points and two rebounds, Leilani Mitchell and Cayla George each added nine points off the bench, Camille Little had eight points and five rebounds and Diana Taurasi finished with five points in the game.

With the win, Minnesota improves to 23-6 on the season with five regular season games remaining. Phoenix drops to 15-15 overall with the loss.

“Everybody came in with that mindset that they want to come in and contribute and it all worked out,” Moore said. “It’s always fun to do it at home in front of our fans.”

Highlight Of The Game

As time expired in the second quarter, Moore hit a jumper at the buzzer to send Minnesota into halftime with some momentum.

That basket gave the Lynx a 49-34 lead at the break and put Moore up to 15 points in the first half.

The Numbers Game

  • The Lynx finished shooting 54.2 percent from the field, while the Mercury shot 47.4 percent.
  • Minnesota led for the entire game and outscored Phoenix in every quarter.
  • The Lynx out-rebounded the Mercury 32-19 and held a 36-28 advantage in points in the paint.

Player Of The Game

Tuesday’s Lynx Player of the Game goes to Maya Moore.

Moore finished with a game-best 21 points and shot 7-of-15 from the field, 2-of-4 from three and shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.

“I thought Maya had a great game. I thought she was really active, she was poised, took good shots,” Reeve said. “When you make shots from the perimeter, it opens things up for Syl and I thought we had pretty good focus.”

Up Next

The Lynx will begin a three-game road trip beginning with a matchup against the San Antonio Stars at 7 p.m. Friday in San Antonio. The game will be streamed on Twitter and aired on 106.1 BOB FM and TuneIn Radio.