Angel McCoughtry scores 23 points as Dream move to 5-1 with 68-59 win over Storm
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Angel McCoughtry scored 23 points and Jasmine Thomas added 13 to lead the Atlanta Dream over the Seattle Storm 68-59 on Friday night.
McCoughtry, last season's leading scorer in the WNBA, also had team highs with nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals to help as the Dream improve to 5-1.
Tina Thompson and Temeka Johnson scored 11 points apiece for the Storm, who dropped to 1-3.
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Seattle, the league's lowest-scoring team, managed just four points in the third quarter — coming on two baskets by Johnson — and trailed by 16 before an 11-1 run pulled them to 58-52 on Camille Little's layup midway through the fourth.
But that was as close as the Storm would get. Erika De Souza stole the ball from Tanisha Wright a few minutes later and passed it upcourt to McCoughtry for a fast-break layup and a 10-point lead.
The Dream played the first of six games without forward Sancho Lyttle, their leading rebounder and second-leading scorer this season. With Lyttle playing overseas for Spain's national team, Le'Coe Willingham started in her place and went scoreless but did haul in eight rebounds.
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Alex Bentley added 11 points for Atlanta, which leads the league in team defense, allowing 68.7 points per game.
The Storm used a 17-3 run in the first, ending on Shekinna Stricklen's layup, to take a 19-13 lead in the last 2 minutes of the quarter.
Seattle either led or tied for most of the second before McCoughtry stole the ball from Wright with 2.9 seconds before halftime and hit a layup at the buzzer to put Atlanta up 38-35.
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The Storm, coming off a nine-point home loss last week to Tulsa in which they went 0 for 17 from 3-point range, hit seven of 19 attempts — but Thompson and Stricklen were a combined 1 for 8 from beyond the arc.