Tamika Catchings, Marissa Coleman lead Fever past Storm

SEATTLE – Tamika Catchings stood speechless for a moment in the Indiana Fever locker room after her teammates yelled and cheered when told the star forward had moved into third place on the WNBA’s career scoring list.

“Wow, I don’t know,” Catchings said about her reaction. “That’s cool for me. It’d be great to have that and another championship.”

Catchings and Marissa Coleman each scored 16 points to help the Fever beat the Seattle Storm 76-67 Thursday night.

Catchings, who now has 6,454 points, came in trailing Katie Smith by 14. Tina Thompson is No. 1 with 7,488, and Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi is next at 6,642.

Briann January scored 12 points and Shavonte Zellous had 11 for Indiana (13-14), which had lost four of six. The Fever moved into a tie with Washington for second place in the Eastern Conference.

Shekinna Stricklen scored 20 points to lead Seattle (9-20), which has lost seven straight. The Storm, who have a WNBA-record 10 consecutive postseason appearances, dropped four games behind Los Angeles for the Western Conference’s fourth and final playoff berth with only five games left.