COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — Rhyne Howard scored a season-high 30 points, Allisha Gray added 19 and Tina Charles scored in the post with 1.1 seconds left to help the Atlanta Dream beat the Seattle Storm 83-81 on Friday night to snap an eight-game losing streak.
Charles finished with 16 points and Jordin Canada scored 10 points — all in the fourth quarter — to go with eight assists and three steals for Atlanta (8-17) in the first game back for both teams following a monthlong break due to the Paris Olympics.
Seattle entered the fourth quarter with a 60-55 lead, but Atlanta went on a 12-5 run to go ahead 67-65 with 5:37 to play. The Dream maintained a lead until Jewell Loyd hit a contested fall-away 3-pointer in front of the Seattle bench to make it 81-all with 4.6 seconds left. Loyd’s tying shot came after she chased down a miss from Skylar Diggins-Smith.
The Dream called timeout to move the ball into the frontcourt and Charles caught the inbounds pass on the left block, faced the basket and pulled up for a short jumper to give Atlanta the win.
Diggins-Smith led the Storm (17-9) with a season-high 29 points and Loyd scored 21. Nneka Ogwumike added 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting.
Seattle led 41-29 at halftime and by as many as 14 points in the second half before Atlanta mounted its comeback.
Howard made three 3-pointers in a 63-second span to trim the Dream’s deficit to 49-44 with 5:20 left in the third quarter. Howard made 5 of 6 from the field and scored 14 points in the third quarter as the Dream cut the Storm’s advantage to 60-55 entering the fourth.
Atlanta took a 64-63 lead, its first since the first quarter, with 6:24 to play.
Seattle has committed 15 or fewer turnovers in 19 consecutive games, the fourth-longest streak of its kind in WNBA history.
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