Seattle’s (5-17) offense struggled to consistently score as the Portland Fire (9-12) walked out of Climate Pledge Arena with a 77-72 win to take a 2-0 lead in the renewed I5 rivalry. Dominique Malonga only played 19 minutes as she was in foul trouble early in the first quarter and was forced to ride the bench for the majority of the game. The loss of their leading scorer kneecapped the young offense.
Portland put the game away when Megan Gustafson was fouled on a layup and completed the three point lead to push its lead out to 71-63 with 1:04 seconds left. While Malonga and Natasha Heideman would drill three pointers to make the game interesting, there just wasn’t enough time left on the clock for the offense to overcome that eight point deficit.
Point guard Carla Leite would score eight of her 20 points from the charity stripe in the final quarter. Her most clutch free throws were with 18.1 seconds left to push the Fire’s lead back out to eight after the pair of threes from Malogna and Heideman.
Despite the fact that she only played 19 minutes due to foul trouble, Malogna still led all scorers with 22 points. The center was one of three Storm players in double digits – Awa Fam with 12 and Heideman with 15. But there was no offensive support from the rest of the roster as the fourth most points scored was by Katie Lou Samuelson and Jade Melbourne at five. Seattle’s three top scorers were its three point shooters, as the Fire were able to shut down the passing lanes in the paint and forced the offense to chuck up 28 three point attempts.
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A three from Gustafson kicked off a 14-5 run for the Fire that allowed them to take a 54-47 lead at the end of the third quarter. Portland was able to build that lead because its defense consistently forced poor shot selection from the Storm and then pulled in the defensive boards. This meant that Seattle had two lengthy scoring droughts late in the frame.
Leite got Melbourne into foul trouble (and on the bench) when she drew contact on a drive down the lane not once, but twice. The point guard drilled the three free throws that resulted from the fouls – one was an and-one, while the other was two shots. With one of their top three ball shooters out, Portland was able to clog the passing lanes and keep the ball out of the hands of Seattle’s bigs.
Portland would take a 32-30 lead into the half thanks to Engstler’s layup after she drove the lane to help the Fire to retake the lead with 1:18 on the clock, and then a Barker layup with 44.1 seconds left before the half. While Fam was able to hit both of her free throws, neither side was able to score again before the break.
After Seattle took the lead at 25-23, the offenses found their stride. Teja Oblak and Heideman traded threes before Oblak tied it again at 28.
It only took Portland three minutes of game clock to erase the 10 point deficit at the start of the second quarter. The Fire started off the second frame with a 15-1 run to take a 23-21 lead about halfway through the quarter. The run saw the Fire rediscover their three point stroke as Engstler sunk a 24-footer. But Seattle quickly tied the game at 23 when Samuelson drew a foul and went to the charity stripe to sink two free throws.
The first quarter saw the Storm play some of the best defense this season. Seattle was able to limit Portland to only four three point attempts, all of them missed, in the first frame which forced the Fire’s offense out of their comfort zone. It paid off as the Storm closed out the quarter on a 13-2 run that meant they took a 20-10 lead into the first intermission.
Malonga spent the majority of the quarter on the bench as she quickly wracked up two fouls which meant that Magbegor saw extended action in her season debut. This meant that Seattle had to run a more balanced offense attack as Fam, Heideman, and Melbourne all scored multiple buckets to help their squad build a 10 point lead before the break.
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