Four of the Sparks’ starters scored in double figures, but it wasn’t enough. Dearica Hamby had a historic night, grabbing her 341st rebound to break Lisa Leslie’s 20-year-old single season franchise record and enter the Sparks’ top-10 all-time rebounds list, but it still wasn’t enough.
The Sparks outrebounded the Seattle Storm, outscored them in the paint and had more second-chance points, but all of it wasn’t enough as the Sparks fell 90-82 on Wednesday in their penultimate home game of the season.
The Sparks entered the fourth quarter trailing by six, their largest deficit of the night. They’ve had a bad habit of letting runs snowball throughout the season, but it appeared as though they had finally found an answer when a reverse layup from Rickea Jackson put the cap on an 8-0 run to start the final period, giving the Sparks back the lead for the first time since before halftime.
The two teams traded buckets for the next few minutes, but a corner three-pointer from Sami Whitcomb gave Seattle a 75-72 lead with just under six minutes to go. The Sparks were able to get within one point, but a late sequence that consisted of a fadeaway basket from Skylar Diggins-Smith and a Crystal Dangerfield turnover that led to a fastbreak layup from former longtime Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike stretched the Storm’s lead to five points with under two minutes to go.
A pair of missed free throws from Rae Burrell in the final 90 seconds ended any hopes of a Sparks comeback.
The Sparks (7-30) head to Seattle (22-14) for a rematch on Sunday. They return to Crypto.com Arena for their home finale against the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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