The last time Jewell Loyd and Arike Ogunbowale squared off, the high-scoring WNBA guards combined for 80 points in a thrilling Texas shootout, in which the Storm won 109-103 nearly seven weeks ago.
On Wednesday night, the former Notre Dame stars thrilled the 7,421 fans at Climate Pledge Arena with a spectacular array of long-range shot-making and breathtaking layups in traffic.
However, unlike their first meeting, the Storm’s offense never truly got going and Loyd’s (29) points weren’t nearly enough to overcome a balanced Dallas Wings attack led by Ogunbowale, who had 27, during a 76-65 defeat that snapped Seattle’s two-game winning streak.
“I’m not sure if it’s matchups or whatever, but the games (against Dallas) have had a flow,” Loyd said before the game. “They’ve got great scorers and so do we. … That was a game, we fought all the way through and we’ve shown that the least couple of weeks.”
The Storm (6-20) believed they discovered a winning formula last week during a 2-1 road trip in which they led by at least 18 points in the second half of each game.
“What we did on the road trip was grow up in a lot of ways,” coach Noelle Quinn said. “That is going to impact what we go through for the rest of the season. (Dallas) is going to be a big test for us. A very good team at home with a lot of good firepower.
“How do we take what we learned on the road and translate it into this game? Because we’ve been in those games with large leads and have been playing at a high level gives us confidence coming into this game knowing we can do the same thing.”
The Storm fell behind early and trailed the entire way en route to their fifth straight home loss.
Loyd and Ogunbowale accounted for all of the points for their respective teams in the opening minutes when the Storm guard landed awkwardly on a Dallas player on a jump shot and injured her right ankle.
Trailing 8-4 with 7:22 left in the first quarter, Loyd limped into the locker room and Dallas promptly pushed its lead to 14-6.
(Ezi) Magbegor kept the Storm within striking desistance with a couple of driving layups before Loyd returned with 2:18 left in the first.
The Lynx stretched their lead to 38-24 late in the second quarter when Loyd was fouled on a corner three-pointer and canned the ensuing free throw for a four-point play that cut Seattle’s deficit to 10 points.
However, the Storm never got any closer in the first half and trailed 46-33 at halftime.
Seattle outscored Dallas 22-19 in the third quarter and trimmed its deficit to 52-44 midway in the period.
The Wings answered with an 11-2 run to push their advantage to 63-46 and the Storm never seriously threatened again.
Ezi Magbegor finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for Seattle, which travels to Phoenix on Saturday.
Dallas (15-11) received 18 points from Satou Sabally and Teaira McCowan added 12.
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