Seattle Storm Tackle Tulsa Shock on Home Court to Win 76-58

Sue Bird/Neil Enns/Storm Photos

June 1 was a tide-turning game as the Seattle Storm toppled Tulsa Shock (76-58) at Key Arena. The win was the 212th of Brian Agler’s career, moving him past Van Chancellor (211) to become the all-time winning coach in women’s professional basketball history. Agler won 72 games in the ABL and now has 140 WNBA wins, including 92 with the Storm.

Shock Head Coach Gary Kloppenburg said post-game, “I thought we battled that first half, but we just stalled out offensively in the third quarter. You can’t do that against a team like the Storm because they have so many weapons.  I thought some fatigue set in with us and we didn’t have as much pressure as we’ve had lately.  Of course Sue Bird is a master at controlling the game so we knew that going in. We knew we needed to make some more shots. That’s the bottom line – we need to make more shots. If we shoot the ball better, we’re right in that game.”

“We were hoping to get our first win tonight and it didn’t go that way. We just didn’t shoot well from the floor and that’s the result. When you shoot 29 percent it’s hard to win.  We get better every game and do positive things every game. We just have to learn how to win and close out games and stop having these lulls where we don’t score. We need better offensive execution because our defense is pretty good. I think we’ve forced over 100 turnovers in the first five games of the season and that’s pretty good. Our defense is there, we just need to get our offense clicking,” said Shock Forward Jennifer Lacy.

Sue Bird scored 15 points in the first half, matching her season high. She finished with 27, the most scored by a Storm player this season.  With 19 points, Camille Little also netted a season high.  Her nine rebounds tied the most by a Storm player in 2012. Jennifer Lacy (12) led the Shock in scoring for the first time this year.

Storm rookie Alysha Clark made her WNBA debut in the first quarter. Her first career point was a free throw with 1:59 left in the game.