Kahleah Copper pours in 30 points as Mercury blitz Storm

Kahleah Copper finished with 30 points and Lexi Held had 17 points while making a career-high five 3-pointers in the Phoenix Mercury’s 90-67 win over the visiting Seattle Storm on Thursday.

Phoenix (8-13) has achieved its first three-game winning streak of the season.

Seattle (5-16) had its two-game winning streak snapped.

The Storm are 0-3 against Phoenix and 0-11 against Western Conference teams this season.

Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas returned from her one-game suspension issued by the WNBA for planting a fist on Caitlin Clark’s neck in the Mercury’s win at Indiana last week. Thomas had a near triple-double on Thursday with nine points, nine assists and 13 rebounds.

Valeriane Ayayi added 18 points for the Mercury.

Seattle was led by Natisha Hiedeman and Awa Fam, both of whom had 13 points. Flau’jae Johnson and Jade Melbourne each posted 11 points.

Phoenix did not trail again after going ahead 5-4 with 8:46 left in the first quarter on an Ayayi 3-pointer.

The hosts took a 55-36 halftime lead behind 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field by Copper.

Ayayi had 13 points despite picking up three fouls and sitting for more than six minutes in the half.

Phoenix led by as many as 26 points in the third quarter, and Seattle could get no closer than 10 points in the second half.

The Mercury recorded 23 assists on their 33 made field goals, and they outrebounded Seattle 40-29.

Phoenix’s DeWanna Bonner, who had eight rebounds, secured the seventh spot on the WNBA’s all-time rebound list with her sixth board of the night. She ended the game with 3,310 for her career, three more than Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie.

The starting lineups for both teams dominated the scoring with Phoenix’s reserves scoring only 10 points and Seattle’s bench finishing with 14.

Seattle starters Johnson, Fam, Dominique Malonga, Hiedeman and Melbourne had 53 points, but the team struggled from the field, shooting 41.9% while committing 13 turnovers.

The Mercury shot 45.2% from the floor and gave the ball away 11 times.

Phoenix has won four of its last five after losing 10 of 12 games.

Seattle had won two straight after enduring a franchise-record 11 straight games.

–Field Level Media