Jewell Loyd’s season-high 34 points leads Seattle Storm to 89-77 win over Caitlin Clark, Fever

SEATTLE – Jewell Loyd scored a season-high 34 points, Nneka Ogwumike posted her fourth double-double of the season, and the Seattle Storm swept their season series against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in a 89-77 victory on Thursday night.

Just as she had done in the prior two meetings between the teams this season, Loyd stole the show from Clark. Loyd scored 32 points with 11 rebounds and six assists in a close 85-83 victory over the Fever on May 22. A week later in Indianapolis, Loyd again led the way with 22 points and six assists in a 103-88 Seattle victory.

Loyd’s two highest-scoring games of the season both came against the Fever.

“We knew it was coming and when it comes, it comes in a storm, in a barrage, and we know that she can rattle off points,” head coach Noelle Quinn said. “Today I thought that she was reading the game really well, and then when she gets in a flow we talked about how she’s unstoppable.”

Loyd was in the midst of a relative cold streak for her. She made just 3-of-15 field goal tries as part of only 14 points in a loss to Phoenix, and an 0-for-9 night with a lone point against the Las Vegas Aces in another loss last week, her only single-digit scoring output of the year.

“I felt good. I felt good before, just sometimes they don’t go in,” Loyd said.

“I think we have the confidence in each other that what’s working, what’s not working, we’re going to fight. We’re not going to quit and give up and just make it about ourselves, it’s about all of us,” Loyd said. “So the fact that my teammates have my back and allowing me to kind of work through it and be patient with myself and give myself grace. It’s not just me it’s everyone.”

Meanwhile, Clark became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 300 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists for a career. Clark and Erica Wheeler led the Fever effort with 15 points a piece. Aliyah Boston had 11 points and 14 rebounds for a double-doubler of her own.

Loyd and Magbegor combined to lead a 12-0 Storm run to snag a 16-8 lead midway through the first quarter. Loyd had 15 of the Storm’s 30 points in the opening quarter in building a nine-point lead at the break.

Magbegor finished with 18 points for Seattle. Ogwumike had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Loyd was seemingly poked in the eye by Lexie Hull and briefly exited the game after scoring her final points of the quarter on a pair of free throws. But she didn’t seem any worse for wear when returning to action in the second quarter, though she did wear dark glasses for her post-game press conference availability.

“I mean, how do the glasses look? They look good? Then we’re all good,” Loyd said.

Loyd made both free throws immediately after being fouled despite dealing with the eye injury. She wouldn’t have been able to return to the game if she’d exited at that moment without taking the free throws.

“I don’t know how I made those because it was not straight,” said Loyd, who admitted she’s practiced shooting free throws with her eyes closed before.

Clark also fought off a minor injury scare early in the game after appearing to tweak her ankle, which briefly left her hobbled. But Clark waved off Indiana head coach Christie Sides to remain in the game.

Clark showed off some of her great skill as well, draining a 3-pointer from the edge of the half-court Storm logo, and delivering a three-quarter court pass on the money to Katie Lou Samuelson for an easy basket that cut Seattle’s lead to 32-29 with seven minutes left in the half.

Clark did mention the Storm did a good job of defending their ball screens, which caused Indiana’s offense to have problems. Seattle forced the Fever into 22 total turnovers, which resulted in 27 points for the Storm offense.

“When you’re playing off a ball screen a lot and you get blitzed, you’re just going to have to give the ball up. That’s just kind of how it rolls,” she said.

An 8-0 run grew into a 21-7 run as the lead ballooned to 53-36 with 30 seconds left in the quarter. Clark added a 3-pointer from the corner with 11 seconds left to cut Seattle’s lead to 14 heading to the locker rooms.

A Jordan Horston layup with just over four minutes left in the third quarter gave Seattle its biggest lead of the night at 19 points, 67-48. But the Fever managed to rally and chipped away at the Storm lead.

Erica Wheeler made a pair of 3-pointers, Clark converted all three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt of her own and Temi Fagbenle made a pair of layups as the lead dwindled to 70-61 by the end of the quarter.

“We’re competitors,” Clark said. “We want to win. It didn’t ever really feel great out there tonight, even when we cut it to nine. It just didn’t feel like it was flowing too well.

A 9-0 Storm run to open the fourth quarter restored some breathing room for Seattle and the Fever were unable to get the lead back within single digits.

“We love these moments of being able to be home,” Loyd said. “… We talked about it all week of just like joy, and playing with this joy we want to play with.”

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