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TONIGHT'S NOTES |
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The Storm won its fifth straight game, the team's longest streak this season and tied for the second-longest in franchise history. (Seattle won six straight from 6/3-6/19/04.)
Charlotte has never won at KeyArena (now 0-5).
The Sting lost for the franchise-record eighth time in a row. Charlotte remains winless on the road (0-11).
Janell Burse scored a career-high 27 points on 11-for-13 shooting. Burse previously scored 21 twice.
Lauren Jackson (21) scored 20-plus points for the 11th time this season.
Sue Bird had 17 points and seven assists. Bird's five rebounds are a season high.
Jia Perkins tied her career high with 21 points, shooting 8-for-13 from the field. Perkins scored 20+ for the second time this season and the fifth time any Sting player has topped that mark.
Perkins handed out a career-high five assists in her second career start.
Janel McCarville's seven rebounds tied a career high.
Charlotte missed 14 consecutive shots early in the first half. The Sting was scoreless for 7:33 while the Storm went on an 8-0 run.
No Sting player besides Perkins scored in the first 11:36 of the game.
Sue Bird set a career high with two blocked shots.
Tangela Smith tied her career high by blocking six shots. Smith previously had six blocks against the Storm on Aug. 9, 2000 at KeyArena.
Led by Smith, the Sting blocked nine shots as a team, blowing by the previous season high of five.
Charlotte's 91.7% free-throw shooting (11-for-12) was a season high.
The Storm shot 50% or better from the field for the fifth time and is 5-0 in those games.
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July 29, 2005
STORM COACH 
ANNE DONOVAN:
On the Storm retuning from a break:
Yeah, we looked like a team that had not played in five days, not real sharp. You know, not bad defense in the first half, we sure didn’t play it the second half.
On 
Janell Burse's career-high 27 points:
Some good things out there. JB obviously just a monster game against a very good post team with Tammy Sutton-Brown, Tangela Smith, (Janel) McCarville. They kept bringing posts at her, and she just had her way.
On Sunday's game:
The bright spot is we have L.A. after this game. Thank goodness this wasn’t L.A. tonight.
On 
Natalia Vodopyanova's play:
She’s not comfortable. I like her high energy. I don’t want her to slow down in that regard at all, but I want her to settle down. That doesn’t mean slow down, it just means settle down.
CENTER JANELL BURSE:
On her game:
I held the team chapel the night before the game instead of Nancy, our team chaplain, and I had a really good feeling when I walked out of the room like it was going to be a good game.
On her aggressiveness:
I pretty much stay the same. I try to be aggressive every night, so it really wasn’t too much of a mental thing. My teammates, they were great and gave me some really good passes and found me when I was open and 
Lauren (Jackson) was double-teamed. I credit all that to them, for finding me.
On her confidence:
I never take the highs and run with it or the lows and run with it. I just try to stay consistent.
CHARLOTTE HEAD COACH TRUDI LACEY:
On the game:
It was a well played game, but it was too much Burse and too much Jackson. We played hard for 40 minutes and that’s what I’m asking them to do. We have a very young team. I thought they played with a lot of heart and character, which they have done all year long. We’ve been in nearly every game and we’ve had some tough losses, but they continue to bounce back. I told them that adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it and they have shown tremendous character. We don’t look at our record, we look at getting better every day and that’s what we’ve done through the whole season. I told them to stay encouraged. If you can be away from home and play the world champions … really it was down to the wire. They hit some shots late, but we were right there. Again, I just want them to stay encouraged.
On Burse's performance:
She was the X-factor. What we wanted to do with her defensively, we just flat out didn’t get it done. Once she got on a roll, it was tough to stop her.
On Jia Perkins' play:
Jia gives us something that we don’t have, which is she can create her own shot off the dribble and give some defensive pressure. Jia is basically a rookie because she had a baby last year, so she only played in three games, I think. She’s going to be a player in this league. It was good to see. We’re really trying to develop our young players and we’re in a rebuilding process, which makes it tough. They’re getting on-the-job training - that’s the only way they’re going to learn.
FORWARD SHERI SAM:
On returning to Seattle and getting her championship ring:
Getting the ring was something special. It puts some closure on last year’s championship. It’s always great to play here and having played for Seattle last year makes it more special. It’s good to come back.
On trash talking her former teammates:
Oh, it was all in fun … talking a little smack. I thought JB had a great game. That’s the type of game she’s capable of having and she’s only going to get better. I was really proud of her tonight.
GUARD JIA PERKINS:
On replacing Allison Feaster in the Sting's lineup:
I think I had a good feeling shooting. I just wanted to go out there to help the team. I know (Allison) scores some points so I knew I had to do that and also play some defense.
On Burse:
She really came through for her team. We were focused on Jackson and 
(Sue) Bird - their main players, but it’s always good for that X-factor to make some plays and have a good game.
On positives to take from the game:
We stayed with it. That’s what we’re trying to do - play hard every game and leave it all on the court. We need to exhaust ourselves and I know we did that today.
2005 Postgame Quotes/Notes Archive
