The Seattle Storm found themselves in a familiar position Sunday in a tie game against the Washington Mystics. All-Star Nneka Ogwumike delivered a different result, seeing her jumper from just inside the free throw line bounce in to give the Storm a crucial 84-82 win.
"We've been in a lot of these situations as of late and maybe haven't had a timeout or have had to be on the defensive end of that," Seattle coach Noelle Quinn said. "To have an opportunity, finally, to have time on the clock and give it to our best player to make a play, it feels great. It feels like the dividends that are paying off with the reps we've gotten with a lot of these tight games.
"Those are really big plays by some really great players down the stretch, and they're very poised and confident. No one ever wavered with how they felt. And so it was good to see that ball go through and get out of here with a victory."
The Storm's first five games of August were all losses decided by four points or fewer. After snapping their losing streak by beating the Atlanta Dream 80-78 in Vancouver, Seattle lost another close game by three to the Phoenix Mercury a week ago.
As a result, despite lopsided wins in the first two games of the Storm's five-game road trip at Chicago and Dallas, Sunday's game felt like it was following a similar script. Despite a career-high six 3-pointers from Ogwumike, who reached the 30-point mark for the second time this season, Seattle saw a 13-point lead midway through the third quarter erased by the Mystics.
Washington answered a pair of Storm scores in the final minute, tying the game with a Kiki Iriafen layup with 36.4 seconds remaining and a Sug Sutton 3-pointer at the 6.7-second mark set up by a defensive miscommunication.
That set up Seattle to have the last shot. According to Ogwumike, All-Star point guard Skylar Diggins -- who had double-figure assists for the fourth time this season -- tweaked Quinn's play call in the huddle.
"So based on what we had been seeing leading up to that point, Noey was talking about getting Sky downhill," Ogwumike said. "That's something that time and time again has worked for us. But Sky told me when we came out that she anticipated them switching if I slipped, so instead of actually setting the screen, she told me to slip. And that was what we kind of ended up doing to not only get a shot off but the last shot off."
Fellow All-Star Brittney Sykes, facing Washington for the first time since being traded to the Storm earlier this month, wouldn't have wanted the game in the hands of anyone else.
"We have so much trust in Sky and Nneka, in their leadership and how they ran that last play," Sykes said. "We were willing to live with whatever result came out of it."
Per Elias Sports Bureau, Sunday's game-winner was the second of Ogwumike's career to give her team the lead in the last two seconds of regulation or overtime. Ogwumike previously did it Aug. 19, 2021, hitting a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining to beat the Dream.