Uncasville — Chiney Ogwumike had 21 points and 12 rebounds but that was not enough as the Connecticut Sun dropped a 78-65 decision to the Seattle Storm Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Jewell Lloyd had 31 points for the Storm (18-6), who outscored the Sun (12-12) by a 24-10 margin over the last 8:27 of the game.
The No. 2 offense in the league with a scoring average of 87 points per game when the night began, Seattle struggled early against an active Connecticut defense. The Storm scored just 10 points in the first quarter, and shot 13 of 34 (38.2 percent) from the field in the first half.
But the Seattle offense got rolling in the second half. The Storm made 8 of 15 three-point attempts after the break — 11 of 25 overall — while outscoring the Sun 49-32 in the second 20 minutes.
Sue Bird (17 points, five assists) combined with Lloyd for 31 points with six made threes in the second half.
Still, the Sun were within 54-53 after Shekinna Stricklen made her third three-pointer of the night with 8:27 left, answering a jumper from Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.
A Lloyd three pushed the Storm lead to 59-53, but Jonquel Jones answered with a three to make it 59-56 with 6:45 left.
That’s when Bird hit a pair of huge threes that helped push the lead to 67-58 with 5:03. A short time later, consecutive threes from Lloyd gave the Storm a 75-60 lead, and the Sun could not recover.
Connecticut visits Dallas on Sunday at 4 p.m. EST.