SEATTLE — Desperate to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Sparks found their finishing kick.
Dearica Hamby had 27 points and 11 rebounds, Rickea Jackson added 23 points, and the Sparks rallied to beat the Seattle Storm, 91-85, on Monday night.
Seattle led 85-80 with 2:47 to play but Hamby scored five points and Jackson four during an 11-0 closing run to pull the Sparks (19-20) within 1½ games of the Storm (22-20) and Indiana (21-19) for the final two WNBA playoff spots. A bank hook from Hamby with 2:33 remaining started the run.
Seattle, which led by as many as 17 points in the second half and was still up by eight in the fourth quarter, missed its last five shots from the field. The Storm shot 13 for 32 (40.6%) from 3-point range, but they were 0 for 7 from behind the arc in the fourth quarter.
Kelsey Plum added 14 points and seven assists for the Sparks, who outscored the Storm 23-12 in the fourth by shooting 57.1% from the floor. Rae Burrell added 11 points for the Sparks, who dominated the boards 37-23. On a night when they were outscored 39-12 from 3-point range, the visitors parlayed their dominance on the glass to a 60-30 advantage on points in the paint.
Former Spark Nneka Ogwumike had 21 points on five first-half 3-pointers and two second half three-point plays for the Storm (22-20). Skylar Diggins also had 21 points and Ezi Magbegor added 11.
Gabby Williams had two baskets and an assist to fuel a 10-0 run for the Storm, who led 25-20 after one quarter.
Ogwumike had three 3-pointers in less than a minute, making her 5 for 5, for a 36-25 lead 3½ minutes into the second quarter. The Storm had six 3-pointers in the quarter with Erica Wheeler’s in the closing seconds of the first half giving the hosts a 53-39 lead at halftime.
Diggins opened the second half with a 3-pointer for a 17-point lead, but the Sparks hit their first five shots and were 12 for 17 in the quarter. The Storm led by eight after Owgumike converted a three-point play with 4.4 seconds remaining, but Jackson received the inbounds pass and dribbled up the court and banked in a running 3-pointer at the buzzer to get the Sparks within 73-68 going into the fourth quarter.
The Sparks received back-to-back baskets from Hamby and Plum to move within 80-76 with 5:14 to play before Ogwumike answered with a three-point play with 4:42 to play.
The Sparks, who have three games in hand on Seattle and one game in hand on Indiana, secured the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Storm by taking three of their four regular-season meetings.
UP NEXT
The Sparks play at Atlanta (26-14) on Wednesday and Friday nights. The Storm are home against New York on Friday.