Storm rally, but waste big game from Flau'jae Johnson in loss to Sky

Here we go again.

You just knew the Storm, who were 1-8 in clutch games and 0-8 in games decided by five points or less before Wednesday, would find themselves in another close affair.

Sure enough, Seattle cut its 14-point deficit to two with less than five minutes left.

It's been a precarious spot for the WNBA's youngest starting lineup who came up short once again at the end, squandered a sensational 25-point performance from rookie guard Flau'jae Johnson and lost 95-90 to the Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena.

"I felt like the team was really locked in," coach Sonia Raman said. "They knew what they needed to do, and I thought they had a really good high level of confidence and belief in themselves that they could do it. Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way with some of the looks that we got.

"But I didn't sense any sort of here we go again from them."

Maybe not from the Storm players, but certainly from the fans of the Seattle team that was in a similar position three days earlier and fell apart in the final minutes of an 84-79 road loss against the Washington Mystics.

Unlike their previous outing when the Storm led for most of the game, they fell behind midway in the first quarter and trailed 56-44 at halftime.

The Sky built a 73-59 lead late in the third quarter when Seattle seized momentum with a 10-4 run and cut its deficit to 77-69 at the end of the period.

The Storm outscored the Sky 15-9 to start the fourth quarter, including a long three-pointer from Johnson at the top of the key that cut the deficit to 86-84 with 4:28 left.

"It was just slowing the game down, a lot of space and taking advantage of the space," said Johnson who converted 11 of 17 shots and tallied six rebounds, four assists and three steals. "Trying to get downhill. Be aggressive and see if they got some shot blockers. Just trying to attack."

After Johnson's basket, veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot drained a midrange jumper that put the Sky up 88-84.

Trailing by three points in the final three minutes, the Storm had a few chances to tie when Johnson committed a turnover, missed a layup and Dominique Malonga lost the ball out of bounds.

Down 91-88, Vandersloot found forward Azura Stevens in the post and she scored over guard Natisha Hiedeman with 26.5 seconds remaining that sealed the win for the Sky in front of a sellout crowd of 9,025.

Malonga, who was selected to the WNBA All-Star Game, finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds while rookie forward Awa Fam had 14 points and seven rebounds. Jade Melbourne and Katie Lou Samuelson each added 11 points.

"We just couldn't quite get back to even," Raman said. "We couldn't get the lead in that situation. It probably took everything we had just to cut it to two at that point. Really good run in the fourth quarter. Probably just ran out of time there.

"The takeaway for us was much more about the first half (and) how we start. Taking care of the ball so that we limit the points off turnovers mainly and then just guarding better in the half court. That was probably the two biggest takeaways from (today)."

The Storm committed 16 turnovers that the led to 20 points, shot 16% (4 of 25) on three-pointers and allowed the Sky to shoot 47.3% from the field, but their inability to win close games is a reoccurring theme this season.

Despite the loss and a 6-20 record that's dropped them to last in the WNBA, Johnson believes the Storm are learning how to win.

"Until the buzzer sounds, the game is not over," she said. "So, we got to continue to play and have the mentality of next play. If they score, OK we (about) to get a stop and we about to score. With us being so young, we kind of get too focused on the small things and I think kind of just getting out of ourselves and having those reps and those clutch times to know like, OK this is how you do this and this is when you do this.

"So, it is just like growing pains. We just got to figure out how to win. That takes time."

Stevens scored 20 points, Sydney Taylor had 17 and Natasha Cloud 13 for the short-handed Sky who were without center Kamilla Cardoso (right knee) for the first time this season.

Former Storm guard Skylar Diggins (right knee) also missed her fourth straight game and Chicago was missing DiJonai Carrington (left foot) and Rickea Jackson (knee).

The Storm's five-game road trip ends Friday against the Indiana Fever (14-9).

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