Mercury continues sliding with loss to Seattle

BY SCOTT MAMMOSER

PHOENIX- In a league where two-games dictate the difference from second place to ninth, the first-place Seattle Storm continued to separate itself from the rest of the parity-driven WNBA with a 102-91 win at the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday.

Jewell Loyd, who averages 16 points per game versus the rest of the league and what feels like 30 when she plays the Mercury, finished with 29.  Breanna Stewart, leading the league in scoring at 22.8 points per game, added 16 for the Storm (19-8).

Mercury in a slump, losing 7 of last 8 games.

Phoenix (15-12) lost for the seventh time in the past eight games, with the lone win coming at lowly Indiana (3-23). Diana Taurasi scored 14 on 4-of-9 shooting in the first quarter, twice as much as any other player, but cooled down at concluded with 20. Brittney Griner scored 25 points and tied Briann January with a game-high seven assists, plus DeWanna Bonner scored 14.

“That’s a great team out there,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said of the Storm. “They have so many weapons. They have the best point guard ever to play the game (Sue Bird). They have (Natasha) Howard impacting, Loyd always playing well against us, and players coming off the bench and doing their jobs. But don’t sympathize with us, we can’t allow teams to score 102 points. We need to get better at playing defense.”

Bird only scored five points, but watching the 37-year-old weaving through the open court and setting up the offense still feels like spotting a cheetah on safari. Howard added a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Alysha Clark scored 13.

Seattle, with Loyd going 5-of-7, slaughtered the Mercury from downtown, shooting 50 percent opposed to Phoenix’s 23 percent.

The Mercury added more size upfront with the signing of former Notre Dame and Minnesota Lynx forward Devereaux Peters this week, replacing the injured Sancho Lyttle. Peters graduated a year prior to Loyd’s arrival on the campus in South Bend.

“I just missed her,” Peters said of Loyd. “That’s my girl though, I heavily recruited her because she’s from Chicago. I was always at her high school games, we always hung out. That’s my girl!”

The Mercury will play its final two regular season road games at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in Las Vegas and at 4 p.m. on Sunday in Los Angeles. A 7 p.m. tip on August 7 against the Washington Mystics begins a string of five-straight to close the year. The Storm hosts Minnesota at 7 p.m. on Friday.

“We have to get better if we want to go far in the playoffs,” Brondello said. “We need everyone to step up and shoot the ball with confidence. We need to stay aggressive and move the ball.”