Storm surrender 27-point fourth quarter in loss to Sun
By Christan Braswell
The halfway point in the 2025 WNBA season has come and gone, with one thing being painfully clear about the Seattle Storm. Through 20 games, the team is consistently inconsistent. Don’t take it just from fans because players and head coach Noelle Quinn have repeated the phrase several times.
After beating the defending champion New York Liberty on Sunday for the second time this season, Seattle proved the phrase to be true once again by losing to the Connecticut Sun, 93-83.
Before beating the Storm on Wednesday, the Sun won their last game 31 days ago on June 8. The last time the team scored 90-plus points was on Oct. 8 in the 2024 WNBA Semifinals against the Minnesota Lynx. Both streaks were ended against a Seattle team that holds championship aspirations.
Storm stars Skylar Diggins and Ezi Magbegor led the charge in the opening frame, where Diggins scored or assisted on six of Seattle’s first seven possessions, good for eight points and three assists. Magbegor had a new season-high (14 points) in Sunday’s win over the New York Liberty. Against the Sun, she scored eight points to start, combining with Diggins for 18 of the Storm’s 27 first-quarter points.
A balanced Sun scoring attack in the second quarter, where three players scored six points or more, kept the team within striking distance. Sun center and future Hall of Famer Tina Charles finished with a double-double and led all scorers with 29 points and 11 rebounds. Three other Connecticut players tallied double figures as well.
After taking an eight-point lead into halftime, the Saniya Rivers show took center stage to start the second half, scoring or assisting on 11 of the Sun’s first 16 points. Diggins did all she could to keep Seattle in the fight with a four-point play at the end of the third quarter to increase the lead to eight at 74-66. From that point on, Seattle’s light went out and the team stopped competing.
“A lack of focus, I don’t know,” said Williams. “You can say a million things about it. I think the fourth quarter, we started to panic. I will be the first one to say that we disrespected Connecticut today. We got what we deserved. That’s a team with a Hall of Famer; they’re professionals. They still can hoop, and we disrespected them. I think we went, okay, we’re up. Now we can relax, and we just stopped playing basketball, so we got what we deserved today.”
Connecticut crafted a 27-9 stretch with mini runs in the final frame, holding the Storm to a single point for the first three minutes before Williams scored at 6:57. The Sun then went on a mini 7-0 run after Williams’ bucket. Missed free throws, poor communication, and a clear panic set in, as Williams previously stated. Connecticut had 11 points off six Storm turnovers in the fourth alone, ending any chance of a storied comeback against the worst team in the WNBA.
Seattle returns home for a rematch with the Sun on Friday.
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