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Boxscore Recap Live From Press Row

TONIGHT'S NOTES

The Storm won for the third consecutive game. New York dropped its second straight game and had a two-game road winning streak snapped. Seattle went on a run of 15-0 and 26-2 during the first half to break the game open. New York was held scoreless for a stretch of 6:45 during the run. The Storm scored on nine straight possessions at one point. The Liberty used a 13-0 run late in the game to make it competitive. Janell Burse (15 points, 11 rebounds) recorded her second double-double of the season and the third of her career. Burse's 11 rebounds tied a season high and her eight offensive boards were a career high. Iziane Castro Marques scored a career-high 20 points, shooting 7-for-10 from the field. Castro Marques hit all four of her 3-pointers, a new career high. Betty Lennox scored 14 of her 18 points in the first half. Lauren Jackson sprained her right ankle with 7:16 left in the game and did not return. Becky Hammon scored 13 of her team-high 18 points after halftime. All-Star Ann Wauters scored a season-low five points, shooting 1-for-9 from the field. New York rookie Catherine Kraayeveld made her WNBA debut. The Liberty committed 10 turnovers in the first half and the Storm had seven steals. New York averages just 13.4 turnovers, the Storm 6.2 steals. The Storm outscored New York 15-0 on fast-break points in the first half. After hitting their first two threes, the Liberty missed their next nine attempts. The Storm's 19-point halftime lead was the team's largest of the season (previously 18 vs. SAC on July 3). Seattle had 10 steals, the second time this season with double-figures

July 19, 2005

STORM COACH ANNE DONOVAN:

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On Lauren Jackson's injury:
Mild ankle sprain. So she’s going to be okay, I hope.

On the first half:
It was something special in the first half. Everybody was in the groove, everybody had scored with the exception of Suzy (Batkovic). Just some really good high energy defense, tons of transition, it felt like the team we had last year as much as we were running. The stops that we had, holding them to 25 points in the first half and the amount of transition we got at the other end was phenomenal.

On what changed to allow the Storm to go on a 26-2 run:
They were running post-up plays with their guards and we had trouble with that. So we made an adjustment there. I think our coaches did a great job scouting them. Our goal was to take away the 3-point line knowing that they had good 3-point shooting.

On the Storm's transition offense in the first half:
It was awesome. We have not run that well since last season. That is why we brought Izzy (Castro Marques) to this team, to run with Betty (Lennox) and Sue (Bird). But we don’t get that if we don’t get stops and we got enough stops to get going. We’re such a good transition team, but we don’t get to do that when we’re taking the ball out of the net. We are so good in the open floor.

On the game changing when Jackson was injured:
Huge. Lauren is one of our best fighters and sets a real solid tone for us and who we are so when she went out, you could just feel the mood and energy change. We’ve got to be able to step and maintain that with or without Lauren. We need to be fighters. We need not to be satisfied to win a game by 10.

GUARD SUE BIRD:

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On the game:
When we put together two halves, that will be our best effort. We need to put a complete game together.

On Jackson's injury:
Obviously she’s a big part of our team. Both defensively and offensively, she just does so much for us. Without her, we’re probably not as good of a team. But at the same time, when she did go down, we should have come together and played even harder.

On the Storm's run:
When we play defense, we can really do some things in transition. That’s when we’re at our best. We were just able to do it tonight; I wish I knew why or I’d do it ever game1.

GUARD BETTY LENNOX:

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On the Storm's run:
That was probably the best we’ve ever played. For the first time in my career, I was having a lot of fun - just laughing and smiling and having a lot of fun. Just enjoying what we were doing out there.

It was just a whole-hearted team effort in the first half, how the ball got passed around. We made them turn the ball over and just getting transition layups. It was a great feeling in the first half.

FORWARD IZIANE CASTRO MARQUES:

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On the Storm's run:
It was nice. Very nice. We had great defense all over, then got steals and rebounds and ran and finished.

NEW YORK HEAD COACH PATTIE COYLE:

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On the game:
We played well for 34 minutes. They went on that one stretch … you know, I called two timeouts, but we just never recovered from it. Seattle came out of the timeout and really came after us. We lost our poise a little bit. We did a good job for 34 minutes and had some positive things happen. Just that one stretch hurt us. We’ll look at the tape, fix the mistakes and we’ll be better when we play Phoenix.

GUARD BECKY HAMMON:

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On the Storm's run:
We had a couple of minutes (in the first half) that got away from us and the pressure got to us. We have to stay composed when people come at us. I thought we lost our composure a little bit.

On the Liberty's second-half comeback:
You have to keep playing hard and make little adjustments and make extra efforts throughout the game … and that’s what we did in the second half. We executed, defended and rebounded better down the stretch. But transition-wise, they really hurt us.

On positives from the game:
We didn’t quit and we fought back. We stuck together. The other thing is I thought our bench came in and helped us. We have to have everybody contributing and I thought they did a nice job. We played about 35 minutes of solid basketball and then lost it during that five-minute stretch. It’s hard to recover from that, especially when you’re on someone else’s court - it takes a lot of energy and effort. Without that five-minute stretch, it could have been a very different game.

2005 Postgame Quotes/Notes Archive