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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jackson out; Storm wins

Leading scorer has lower-back injury

From Wire Reports

SEATTLE – Tanisha Wright scored 25 points and Sue Bird added 24 to lead the Seattle Storm to a 91-84 win in double-overtime over the Atlanta Dream in Seattle on Saturday night.

The Storm played without injured forward Lauren Jackson, sidelined indefinitely with a stress fracture in her lower back.

Wright scored six in the second overtime as the Storm outscored the Dream 11-4 for their fifth straight win.

Janell Burse added 17 points and Swin Cash 15 for Seattle (18-11), now 13-3 at home.

Angel McCoughtry scored 16 points and Sancho Lyttle added 15 to lead Atlanta (15-14).

Camille Little sent the game into a second overtime for the Storm when she hit a 15-footer with 5.4 seconds left to tie it at 80.

Lyttle missed an open inside shot right before the end of the first overtime that would have given Atlanta the win.

McCoughtry stole the ball and scored on a lay-in to give the Dream a 79-78 lead with 42.5 seconds left in the first overtime. Ivory Latta hit just one of two free-throw attempts to make it 80-78.

Bird hit a 3-pointer with 19.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime tied at 73. McCoughtry had made two free throws to put the Dream up 73-70 with 22.3 seconds left.

Lyttle scored back-to-back baskets to give the Dream a 71-66 lead with 1:35 left. Bird answered with two consecutive baskets to cut the lead to 71-70.

Burse started in place of Jackson. Jackson is the Storm’s leading scorer averaging 19.2 points.

Atlanta forward Chamique Holdsclaw missed her third consecutive game with a sore right knee.

The Storm clinched a sixth consecutive playoff berth with a win Thursday over the Connecticut Sun.

In that game, Jackson had 17 points and played 29 minutes. Jackson is the Storm’s leading scorer averaging 19.2 points.

“Lauren has been playing with back pain for a couple of weeks,” Storm coach Brian Agler said. “She will rest and work with our team physicians and trainers to rehabilitate her back.”

Jackson had a bone scan Friday that revealed the stress fracture, Agler said. Jackson said she suffered the injury against Atlanta on Aug. 15. But she continued to play, decreasing her minutes from 34 in a win against Detroit to a season-low 18 against Washington on Tuesday. Jackson played 30 on Thursday, falling hard on her back in a collision with Connecticut guard Lindsay Whalen in the fourth quarter.