SEATTLE - Opening night and the Seattle Storm has already set a lofty precedent on exhilarating comebacks. Down 22 points with 15 minutes to play, Seattle put together one of the most stirring rallies in franchise history to shock the Houston Comets 82-69 on Saturday night.
With team owner Clay Bennett watching from a luxury box, Seattle closed the game on a 44-9 run that left the Comets stunned and the Storm searching to describe the drastic reversal.
Iziane Castro Marques led Seattle with 25 points, and Betty Lennox scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half to key the win.
"I looked out there and we were going down 15, 17, 22 and we just looked shell shocked," Storm coach Anne Donovan said. "Then all of a sudden one basket here, one stop there and just kept building on it."
The turnaround was staggering and sudden, and ruined Karleen Thompson's debut as just the second coach in Houston's history.
Houston held Seattle without a field goal for the first five minutes of the third quarter, starting the second half on a 14-1 run that gave the Comets a 60-38 lead on rookie Ashley Shields' two free throws with 5:20 left in the quarter.
Thompson seemed well on her way to win No. 1, replacing coach Van Chancellor, who resigned in January and then took the head coaching job at LSU in April.
Suddenly, the shots stopped falling for Houston, and Seattle's sputtering offense kicked into gear.
"You can't give them the opportunity to make runs like that," Thompson said.
The shift started with Lauren Jackson's 4-foot turnaround at the 5-minute mark of the third quarter. Seattle continued to chip away and got the deficit into single digits at 62-54 on Lennox's driving layup to close the third quarter.
Lennox didn't stop there, scoring seven straight midway through the fourth, capping her run with a step-back 17-footer to trim the deficit to 66-65. On Seattle's next possession, Sue Bird, who made just 3-of-11 shots, sprinted down the lane and her left-handed layup with 3:56 left gave the Storm the lead for good.
"I knew at the end it would come for me," Lennox said. "Then it's my time to shine at the end, whether it's a rebound or getting a big defensive stop or scoring points."
Jackson finished with 23 points and nine rebounds, including a half-court shot to end the game. Castro Marques was Seattle's offense in the first half, scoring 18 points and making 6 of 8 shots before halftime.
"For the first game of the season and the way we played after that run in the third quarter, it was pretty amazing," Jackson said.
Shields led Houston with 19 points, but made just 1 of 9 shots in the second half. Michelle Snow added 16 and Sheryl Swoopes scored 15.
Houston nearly went scoreless the final six minutes. Hamchetou Maiga-Ba made an uncontested layup with 33 seconds left, the Comets' first points since Swoopes' basket at the 6-minute mark. Houston made just 3 of 16 shots in the fourth quarter and shot just 28 percent in the second half.
"We kind of relaxed in the second half and let them get back in the game," Shields said. "I guess we'll learn from our mistakes."
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