Lynx Surprise Silver Stars
July 8, 2010

In an unexpected flash of brilliance, the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night ran away with an 89-66 victory over the San Antonio Silver Stars at Target Center before an announced crowd of 7,182.

Rebekkah Brunson, recently named to the WNBA all-star team, hit for 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, for her eighth double-double of the season, setting a single-season franchise record. Seimone Augustus tallied 15 points and had a season-high five assists.

Prior to Thursday, the Lynx had stumbled to a 5-11 season record. After that, little was expected of the 2010 edition of the team. After falling behind by 9-8 in the first quarter, Minnesota’s Hamchetou Maiga-Ba sank a pair of free throws to put the Lynx in the lead, one the team never relinquished. Minnesota led by 42-32 at the half. By the end of the third quarter the score was: Minnesota 66, San Antonio 46.

Reserve Roneeka Hodges led the Silver Stars with 15 points, including 13 of them in the first half. San Antonio all-star Becky Hammon played 30 minutes but suffered a quadriceps injury and scored only four points. She subsequently removed herself from the upcoming WNBA All-Star Game. She will be replaced by Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen.

The Lynx shot a season-high 53.2 percent from the field, while holding San Antonio to 38.1 percent shooting. Minnesota also held a 38-19 rebounding advantage, which led to 20 second chance points.

“A great game for the Lynx on both sides of the ball, the combination of things we were looking for, good offense with really solid defense, and that’s the end result that you get when you play that hard together,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said.

The Lynx had four scorers in double figures. In addition to Brunson and Augustus, Monica Wright and Whalen had 15 and 14 points, respectively.

The WNBA all-stars will play the U.S. women’s national team at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.