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Big second-half push leads Storm to 20th win

Jul 26, 2010 - 4:05 AM SEATTLE (AP) -- Lauren Jackson had 16 points and nine rebounds to help the Seattle Storm cruise to their 20th victory of the season with a 75-59 win over the Tulsa Shock on Sunday night.

With the win, the Storm become just the second team in league history to start a season 20-2 and just the fifth team to win 20 or more games in three consecutive seasons. The Houston Comets are the only team to have a better start to a season. The Comets opened the 1998 season 25-2 before their third loss of the season.

"It's been all about defense and rebounding and we started off the season OK, playing really well on the defensive end and we've kind of let off," Sue Bird said. "Tonight we were really focused on it and we didn't start off that great in terms of rebounding and giving them a lot of easy looks."

Shanna Crossley scored 13 of her 19 points in the second half to lead Tulsa (4-19).

The Shock outhustled the Storm on the offensive glass early getting eight rebounds and converting 11 second chance points in the first half as Tulsa jumped out to a 23-18 lead early in the second quarter.

"I thought the last four minutes of the second quarter we started defending like we can," Seattle head coach Brian Agler said.

Svetlana Abrosimova then hit three straight 3-pointers from the left corner and a fourth from the right corner during a 12-3 run to help the Storm retake the lead. She finished with 15 points, hitting five 3-pointers. Swin Cash added 10 points and Le'Coe Willingham added nine for Seattle.

"They are extremely aggressive on the ball, so as long as we change the sides of the floor, make the extra pass it's wide open," Abrosimova said. "When you hit one or two you feel it happen and your teammates start looking for you so it gets really easy after that."

The Storm opened the second half with a 14-0 run to take a commanding 54-32 lead and didn't look back. Alison Lacey converted two free throws midway through the fourth quarter to give Seattle a 72-45 lead - its largest of the night.

Bird and Tanisha Wright each added six assists for the Storm.

The Storm outrebounded Tulsa 43-25.

"We're not a big team and the rebounding kills us," Shock head coach Nolan Richardson said. "On one possession, they were getting three or four shots. When you get that many shots on one possession, you're going to nail some of them and that makes it very difficult for us.