SEATTLE – 8,854 Seattle fans deafened ears in Key Arena Friday evening as they willed their Storm to a 75-74 win over the Los Angeles Sparks, forcing a third and decisive game in Seattle on Sunday afternoon.

Seattle's Camille Little breaks to the basket for the game winner against the Los Angeles Sparks Friday night. Photo by Chuckarelei.

Seattle’s self named “blue-collar” duo of Camille Little and Tanisha Wright made sure that Sue Bird’s off balance three pointer with 10.5 seconds remaining in the game was not in vain.

On the previous inbounds possession,Wright suggested they use the length and height of forward Ashley Robinson to guard the inbounds pass by the Sparks.  With the Storm down one point, that length forced a mistake by Los Angeles guard Noelle Quinn allowing Camille Little to steal the pass and score a layup to give the Storm a one point lead.

Los Angeles was unable to score in two attempts in the final five seconds of the game allowing the Storm to walk away victorious.

“Ashley, she was the unsung person on this play I think,” Wright declared.  “Putting her on the ball, that six-five frame, it’s hard to see over people who are tall.”

Things did not look good for the Storm early on as Los Angeles played with a real sense of urgency in the first half. The Sparks leveraged strong performances by forward Candace Parker and former Storm guard Betty Lennox to take a nine point lead into the break.

The Storm had no answer for Parker who utilized a variety of moves in the post to seemingly score at will while Lennox was able to score from a variety of locations on the perimeter.

The Storm came out of the locker room at halftime with a different energy and they displayed the sense of urgency in their play which they lacked in the first half as well as game one of the series. Their defense limited the Sparks to 12 points on 26.3% shooting while Tanisha Wright was able to score repeatedly securing nine points to go with three assists in the quarter.

A fourth quarter lead was not safe for Seattle, despite the deafening noise of the crowd, and LA and the Storm exchanged ties and leads repeatedly to the tune of 11 ties and 15 lead changes, most coming in the final 15 minutes of the game.   

LA seemed to have the game in hand when Tina Thompson hit both of her free throws to put the Sparks up by four points with 14.3 seconds remaining. That was when Bird’s clutch three point shot and the inbounds steal and bucket by Little sealed the victory for Seattle.

Yet with Lauren Jackson and Katie Gearlds out with injuries, the Storm must face what is likely the more talented Sparks one more time on Sunday. Sue Bird did not shy away from that reality in her post-game comments.

“Sure, I’ll be the first to admit it. They’re the more talented team. Individually, one by one, if you went down the line, they have more talent. But, that’s not what basketball is about. Basketball is not one person, two people, three people, it’s about a team -- who can play the best together as a group, and I think that is where our team really excells.” 

The Storm were led by 18 points and five rebounds from Swin Cash, and 15 points, 5 assists and two steals from Sue Bird.  Tanisha Wright also had 15 points to go with a career high nine assists. After Janell Burse was shook up on a play in the second quarter, the seldom used center Suzy Batkovic came in and led the bench for Seattle with 14 points, two rebounds, two steals and three blocks.

The Sparks were led by solid play from their front court of Candace Parker, Tina Thompson and Lisa Leslie who had 15, 14 and 12 points respectively. Leslie had a double double, adding a game high 14 rebounds as well as a pair of steals and a blocked shot.  Seattle All-Decade Team member and 2004 WNBA Finals MVP Betty Lennox led all Sparks scorers with 17 points to which she added four rebounds, three assists and a steal.

The Storm will need to find a way to play better than they did in this critical game if they want to end their streak of first round exits. Head Coach Brian Agler feels there is a level of play they have yet to reach as a team. He was adamant, “I think we can play better. I know we can play better.”

The Storm and the Sparks face off once again in Key Arena on Sunday afternoon at 2PM Pacific time. Sparks Coach Michael Cooper made a playoff guarantee, “There’s a third game to be played on Sunday and I guarantee it’s going to be just as exciting as this one.”

GAME NOTES:

Storm guard Shannon “Pee Wee” Johnson announced she would retire from the WNBA at the end of the 2009 playoffs.  The Storm played a tribute video of her career in the league covering her time in Orlando, Detroit, San Antonio and Seattle. There was a noticeable lack of footage from her time with the recently defunct Houston Comets.

Prior to the start of the fourth quarter Seattle played a video acceptance speech by Ashley Robinson who was voted by fans as the winner of the 2009 “Stormy” award for her performance in a clip from the film Dumb and Dumber.  In the video Camille Little interrupted Robinson’s acceptance speech in an amusing spoof of Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this week.