Seattle Storm Clinch West Top-Seed

The Seattle Storm rallied from an 18-point deficit at the half to bag the top seed in the Western Conference when they defeated the Phoenix Mercury, 91-85, Wednesday at the Key Arena in Seattle.

Leading WNBA MVP candidate Lauren Jackson once again proved why she is receiving a lot of accolades this season. The Australian National Team mainstay tallied a game-high 33 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Storm, which are now on a twelve-game winning streak.

"They're a great team, no doubt about it," Jackson said of Phoenix. "To win tonight and get home court advantage during the playoffs is huge, especially against that team because you know not for one minute did they want us to win that game."

Seattle had a bad start and the Phoenix took advantage in their bid to give the Storm its third loss this season. The Mercury outscored the league-leader by 13 in the second quarter to build an 18 point lead at the half, 56-38. However, Seattle made a run of their own in the second half, outscoring the Mercury 24-8 in the third quarter to erase the 18-point lead.

"That's what we've been talking about year long. We basically have seen every kind of game. We've been up, we've been down. We've had to come back." said Sue Bird, who scored 16 points and dished out seven assists.

"Twenty minutes is a long time and Brian talked about cutting it to 10 before the fourth quarter and we were down two. Sometimes you just have to look at it in little increments and chip away, chip away and it worked in our favor." she added.

Tanisha Wright had 14 points while Swin Cash and Camille Little added ten points apiece for the Seattle Storm, which are now 12-0 at home and 16-0 against Western Conference teams.

Reigning Most Valuable Player Diana Taurasi scored 27 points to lead the Mercury in scoring, while Dewanna Bonner had 19 points for Western Conference's second-seed.

"You have to play 40 minutes to beat any team in this league," Taurasi said. "We put in a good first half and in the second half we didn't get some things we wanted to."

"We'll be all right. I'm not disappointed at all. We lost to a good team, the best team in the league. We played them tough." Phoenix coach Corey Gaines said.

Complete WNBA Results (Wednesday - July 28, 2010)

• Atlanta Dream 105 - Tulsa Shock 89
• Chicago Sky 74 - Indiana Fever 78
• San Antonio Silver Stars 72 - New York Liberty 77
• Washington Mystics 78 - Connecticut Sun 88
• Los Angeles Sparks 71 - Minnesota Lynx 58
• Phoenix Mercury 85 - Seattle Storm 91