Napheesa Collier had 29 points, nine rebounds, five assists and six steals, and the Minnesota Lynx escaped with a 102-93 double-overtime win against the Seattle Storm on Friday night in Minneapolis.
Kayla McBride added 19 points on 6-for-13 shooting for Minnesota, which beat Seattle for the second time in less than a week. Alanna Smith finished with 16 points, five rebounds and a game-high six blocked shots.
Nneka Ogwumike led Seattle with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Skylar Diggins-Smith scored 22 and Jewell Loyd finished with 20 but shot 4 of 21 from the field.
The Lynx led for most of the game before falling apart late in regulation.
Seattle closed the fourth quarter on a 17-4 run to even the score at 78-78 and force the first overtime.
The Lynx led 78-75 with 24 seconds left and had McBride at the free-throw line for two attempts. But McBride, who entered the game as a career 89.5 percent shooter from the charity stripe, missed both of her attempts.
Moments later, McBride fouled Loyd on a 3-point attempt on the other end of the court. Loyd calmly made all three free throws to even the score.
In the first overtime, the Lynx had a chance to take the lead with 2.7 seconds left. Collier made her first free-throw attempt but missed her second, which left the score tied at 88-88 heading into the second overtime.
Finally, Minnesota took control as it posted a 14-5 advantage in the final session. Collier and McBride opened the second overtime with back-to-back 3-pointers, and Smith hit a 3-pointer with 1:25 remaining to increase the Lynx’s lead to 99-91.
The Lynx led 22-16 at the end of the first quarter and 44-37 at the half.
Seattle fell behind 74-61 with 5:43 left in the fourth quarter after Bridget Carleton made a pair of free throws. Nneka Ogwumike started Seattle’s late surge with a 3-pointer off an assist from Diggins-Smith with 4:58 remaining.
Lynx rookie Alissa Pili made her home debut and finished with five points and two rebounds. Pili was Minnesota’s first-round pick this spring out of Utah.
–Field Level Media