Although the Chicago Sky fell to the Seattle Storm 77-68 on Tuesday, the game was a case of not going away quietly nor being sour in defeat.
At the beginning, it was a constant tug-of-war battle where defense ruled and both offenses largely played inside the arc. Both squads went into the half having scored less than 40 points, with the Storm leading 38-37.
Then, the third quarter came and the Storm was raging. They outscored the Sky 26-15 due in large part to Chicago’s ball handling struggles. On the night, the Sky had a total of 21 turnovers, which resulted in their once solid defense becoming out of sorts as they couldn’t keep up with Seattle’s triple threat of Skylar Diggins-Smith, Nneka Ogwumike and Chicago-native Jewell Lloyd.
The Sky found themselves trailing 71-52, but then proceeded to score 12 points to bring them within five, 73-68, with three minutes left to play. Then, Marina Mabrey intercepted the ball from Diggins-Smith, but she threw away a golden opportunity—literally—when she attempted to throw the ball the full length of the court. Loyd picked it off and found Diggins-Smith in the corner, where she hit the 3 to give Seattle a 76-68 lead with 2:25 left to play, virtually ending the Sky’s hopes for a dramatic comeback.
Despite the loss,…