WNBA: Jackson, Storm thunder past Lynx

Lauren Jackson scored 18 points as the Seattle Storm gradually pulled away from Minnesota during the fourth quarter Tuesday night for an 81-67 victory in Seattle.

Iziane Castro Marques added 17 points, giving the Storm a 64-55 lead near the five-minute mark. Betty Lennox, coming off a career-high 34 points Saturday against Washington, tallied 15 for Seattle, including a 3-point play with 1:55 left for a 74-61 lead.

Seimone Augustus had 28 points for the Lynx, getting 16 of those during the first half. Nicole Ohlde added 18 for Minnesota and Svetlana Abrosimova had 13.

The Storm, who already have clinched the No. 4 playoff seed in the Western Conference, started the fourth quarter with just a 50-47 lead. But an 11-4 run to open the quarter pushed it to 10 points, 61-51, and the Lynx never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Mystics 65, Sun 64: At Washington, Alana Beard scored 18 of her 28 points in the fourth quarter to rally the Mystics to a victory over Connecticut.

Coco Miller had 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the field to help the Mystics.

Margo Dydek had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Lindsay Whalen added 13 points for the Sun.

Comets 81, Shock 73: At Auburn Hills, Mich., Tina Thompson had 25 points and nine rebounds as Houston beat Detroit.

Michelle Snow added 13 points and Hamchetou Maiga-Ba 10 for Houston.

Deanna Nolan scored 20 points and Katie Smith had 16 for the Shock, who have already clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Sky 77, Liberty 65: At Chicago, Jia Perkins scored 24 points to lead the Sky over New York.

Stacey Dales had 17 points, Candice Dupree 16 and Dominique Canty added 12 for Chicago, which was eliminated from the playoffs when Washington beat Connecticut earlier in the night.

The Sky lost starting center Chasity Melvin to an eye injury in the first quarter.

Silver Stars 84, Sparks 77 (OT): At Los Angeles, Vickie Johnson and Sophia Young each scored 19 points, and San Antonio outscored the Sparks 15-8 in overtime as the Silver Stars held off Los Angeles. Christi Thomas led the Sparks with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting.