(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: The LA. Sparks were quite impressive with their victory over the Seattle Storm at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night, 6/3  before a very enthusiastic and animated weekend crowd and fan-base. The game-day theme was accorded to the Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Night.

Head Coach Curt Miller appeared confident, and more relaxed due to the fact that he has a line-up that has been restored to its fullest compliment, excluding for the time being, the 3 players who will be out for a longer stretches of time in #33/Katie Lou Samuelson, #23/Azurá Stevens, and #15/Jasmine Thomas. And to prove his point, his re-invigorated team showed him and the 6,866 fans in attendance what they could do in a very close and competitive game, one that their fans truly and thoroughly appreciated.

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[Photo Gallery Credit]: Frankli Robles, East L.A. Sports Scene Productions

[Look Who’s Here Cam]: Captured the presence of NBA All-Star, Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks and newly acquired, Defender, #12/Merritt Mathias from the Angel City Football Club (ACFC).

[GAME  SUMMARY]

[1st Qtr]: The opening period was played very evenly and competitively and resulted in a total score of (16-16). The Sparks managed many baskets on lay-ins and put-backs on second chances. They also played pretty good defense. Meanwhile, the Storm were patient on offense and made good outside perimeter shots. They also were in attack mode with their hard dribble-drive scoring moves to the hoop.

[2nd Qtr]: Once again the teams matched up fairly even in most facets of game. The Sparks found great rhythm with the point sharing going to the Ogwumikes, Canada, Brown, and Clarendon who all hit variety of good  shots that were needed to keep pace with the Storm. The teams battled to another period draw on the amount of points scored in the stanza with  (23-23) points a piece, making the score a tie at 39 to end the first half.

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[Photo Gallery Credit]: Frankli Robles, East L.A. Sports Scene Productions

[HALF-TIME SCORE]: Sparks 39   Seattle  Storm  39

[3rd Qtr]: The Storm’s 2 x WNBA Champion, 4 x All-Star, and Rookie of the Year in 2015, and point guard, #24/Jewell Loyd put on a shooting clinic for the fans to see as she buried 3 pointer after 3 pointer during the crunch time of this period, as well as for the final period. . She would finish with a game high of 37 points to go along with: 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 blocked shot. Team point totals for the period favored the Sparks by a margin of (26-20), ending the stanza with a (65-59) lead for the home team.

[4th Qtr]: Although the Storm’s #24/Loyd, continued on her hot streak for this final period with a new and timely bundle of made 3 point shots, the game finally turned in the Sparks favor when N. Ogwumike went to work and began scoring on put-backs and critical jump shots, keeping the Storm at bay for their comeback. Mix in the fact that the Sparks began to score in spurts, some of them coming after timely steals were made by the tandem of its highly skilled backcourt players, Canada and Clarendon, that led to “key” baskets and the preservation of their momentum which allowed them to maintain their tight, but consistent (5-7) point lead going down the final homestretch and into the winner’s circle.

[FINAL SCORE]: L.A. Sparks 92   Seattle Storm  85.

[ATTENDANCE]: 6,866

[SPARKS GAME STAT-LEADERS]: N. Ogwumike, 27 pts/14 rebs/4 assts/1 stl/1 blkd shot; Layshia Clarendon, 16 pts/6 assts/3 stls; C. Ogwumike, 15 pts/3 rebs/3 assts/3 stls; Lexie Brown, 14 pts/1 asst/1 stl; Jordin Canada, 9 pts/4 rebs/7 assist/4 stls/

[OF SIGNIFICANCE]: The great tandem play of the Ogwumike sisters, along with teammates, Brown, Canada, and Clarendon who all performed to the highest levels and showed consistently great game situational awareness.

The overall hustle play on defense truly made a difference as evidenced by the high number of (13) steals recorded by the team. Canada had 4, while Clarendon and C. Ogwumike each had 3. But the biggest difference for Coach Miller was the team’s very low number of the badly hated “turnover.”

The Sparks produced only (7) for 8 points surrendered, compared to Seattle’s (16) for 18 points given up. And on offense, kudos to Clarendon who caught the attention of the Sparks statisticians’ team who noted that she played a total of (29:00) minutes and was never charged with a turnover.

[NEXT HOME GAME]: June 9th, vs. the Chicago Storm. Tip-off is set for 7:00 pm at Crypto.com Arena. Catch the game on ION Television.