Zia Cooke scores career-high, Flau'jae Johnson bounces back in Storm's first home win

While three of their top interior defensive players sat on the bench in street clothes, the Storm made it an emphasis to avoid the mistakes that doomed them 48 hours earlier.

After allowing 50 points in the paint and being outrebounded 38-26 during a two-point loss against the Connecticut Sun, the Storm flipped the script in Friday's rematch – a 77-59 blowout win at Climate Pledge Arena to snap a three-game losing streak.

This time, Seattle allowed 32 points in the paint and outrebounded Connecticut 38-33. It was a season-low in points for the Sun and the fewest for a Storm opponent since July 24, 2025.

"It was team defense," coach Sonia Raman said. "We just had way more activity, more of a presence. … If someone got beat, rotating over, just multiple efforts and just an awareness to try to get to the glass as well.

"That's a tough team. They pound the paint hard. They pound the glass. A full-on team defensive effort. (Assistant) Michael Joiner, our defensive coordinator, has been on (the players) for the last couple days on being able to protect the paint. I think message received for sure."

Offensively, a trio of superlative performances from Zia Cooke, Flau'jae Johnson and Natisha Hiedeman provided most of the damage for the Storm.

Cooke finished with a career-high 25 points and five rebounds, while Johnson added a personal-best 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting, seven rebounds and five assists, and Hiedeman added 11 points and six assists.

"It starts with Coach Sonia," said Cooke, who converted 7 of 14 shots, including two three-pointers and was 9 of 10 on free throws. "She just believes in us. After our loss, we talked about it, we went and watched a lot of film. We came in. She had a great game plan for us.

"I think it just starts with the coach, for her to have the belief in us that she has it's just going to translate for us on the court."

Johnson, a flamboyant rookie playing her sixth WNBA game, bounced back from a season-low five-point performance in her last outing when she was benched in the fourth quarter.

"You just want to be intentional on the second game," she said when asked about playing the same team in consecutive games. "If I got beat to the goal on the first game, I'm not about to get beat to the goal by the same person in the second game. So, for me it's like taking that personal. I take everything personal. You're not going to beat them twice.

"So, for me, I got to step up defensively, and I just try to do my best just to be everywhere on the court. Coach Sonia challenged me in the last game. I feel like I didn't bring anything. I didn't help offensively or defensively, and I never want to do that to my team. I always want to be there for my team. So tonight, I feel like I just did that on the defensive end and it was really cool."

Playing the second of their four-game homestand, the Storm trailed 8-0 at the start and trailed 21-19 after the first quarter.

Seattle took control in the second period while outscoring Connecticut 18-7 to take a 37-28 halftime lead.

The Sun pulled within 53-46 early in the fourth quarter, but never got any closer because Cooke and Hiedeman scored nine and seven points, respectively, down the stretch for Raman's first home win.

"We just played hard," Cooke told the crowd of 9,741 during a postgame interview. "We played together. It feels good. It's been a long time coming."

Diamond Miller led the Sun (1-6) with 13 points while Aaliyah Edwards had 10.

The Storm, who host the Washington Mystics on Sunday, are anxiously anticipating the return of forward Ezi Magbegor (foot) and center Dominique Malonga (concussion protocol), as well as rookie center Awa Fam, who joined the team Friday and sat out due to rest.

"We don't want to make no excuses because we got to come out every night and do we got to do, but when they get back, it's going to be a whole nother story," Cooke said. "We just got to keep it going, keep the bus rolling, but when they get back, like I said, it's going to be scary."

BOX SCORE

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 11:47 PM.