Carla Leite scored a team-high 20 points as the expansion Portland Fire defeated the host Seattle Storm 77-72 Saturday night in the first meeting between the WNBA’s Pacific Northwest rivals at Climate Pledge Arena.<\/p>\n
Bridget Carleton scored 14 points and Megan Gustafson added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Fire (9-12), which snapped a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
Portland’s Emily Engstler and Frieda Buhner combined for 18 points and 15 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Dominique Malonga led the Storm (5-17) with 22 points. Natisha Hiedeman scored 15 and rookie Awa Fam added 12. Seattle remained winless in 12 games against Western Conference foes.<\/p>\n
Fam made a 3-pointer from the left corner with 6:29 remaining to pull the Storm within 61-58. The Fire answered with a 5-0 run, capped by Carleton’s three-point play, to maintain command.<\/p>\n
Malonga made two free throws with 2:39 left as Seattle again pulled within three, but Carleton made a driving, second-chance layup after an offensive rebound by Gustafson with 1:48 left. Gustafson sank a lay-in and free throw with 1:04 to go to put Portland up 71-63.<\/p>\n
Malonga made a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute, but Portland clinched the victory at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n
The Fire made 36.8% of their field-goal attempts (25 of 68), but were just 4 of 25 from 3-point range. The Storm shot 33.8% (24 of 71) from the floor and were 8 of 29 from distance. Portland outrebounded Seattle 47-31 despite a size disadvantage inside.<\/p>\n
After leading by two at the half, the Fire began pulling away late in the third.<\/p>\n
Gustafson’s 3-pointer broke a 38-all tie with 6:01 left in the quarter to give Portland the lead for good. Buhner scored seven points in a 9-3 run to put the Fire up by seven and they took a 54-47 lead into the fourth.<\/p>\n
The Fire opened the second quarter with an 8-0 streak as Leite converted a three-point play and Engstler added a 3-pointer and a driving layup to pull Portland within 20-18. The teams traded the lead until late layups by Engstler and Barker broke a tie and helped the Fire take a 32-30 lead at the intermission.<\/p>\n
Hiedeman scored nine points in the first as the Storm took a 20-10 lead. Portland shot just 2 for 16 in the opening quarter, including missing all eight of its 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n
–Field Level Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carla Leite scored a team-high 20 points as the expansion Portland Fire defeated the host Seattle Storm 77-72 Saturday night in the first meeting between the WNBA’s Pacific Northwest rivals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":480834,"template":"","news_cat":[4384,4388,4383,17],"class_list":["post-480833","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_cat-news","news_cat-recap","news_cat-story","news_cat-wnba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n