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Originally published Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 10:20 PM
Zellous' last-second 3 lifts Fever past Storm
Shavonte Zellous' buzzer-beating 3-pointer capped Indiana's closing 15-0 run and lifted the Fever to a 68-66 victory over the Seattle Storm on Thursday night.
The Associated Press
Shavonte Zellous' buzzer-beating 3-pointer capped Indiana's closing 15-0 run and lifted the Fever to a 68-66 victory over the Seattle Storm on Thursday night.
Tamika Catchings had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Fever (13-8), who trailed by 13 with 4:04 to go. Briann January added 11 points and Zellous finished with 10.
Camille Little scored 15 points to lead Seattle (10-13), who were 0 for 5 from the field and committed four turnovers over the final 3:50. Sue Bird added 14 points, Shekinna Stricklen had 13 and Ewelina Kobryn 10.
The loss spoiled Lauren Jackson's anticipated season debut with the Storm. The three-time MVP, who missed the first half of the season while training with the Australian national team for the Olympics, finished with four points and six rebounds in about 24 minutes.
On the winning play, January drove the baseline and kicked it out to Zellous wide-open in the corner. Zellous held her follow through and smiled as the ball was in the air and the buzzer sounded.
Bird's jumper with more than 4 minutes to go put Seattle up 13. However Stricklen missed on the next possession and Catchings started the final rally with a jumper with 3:38 left.
Indiana took advantage of two turnovers by Camille Little - one on a bad pass and another on an offensive foul - as Erin Phillips had a three-point play and Catchings made a 3 to pull Indiana within five about a minute later.
Jessica Davenport made two baskets as Jackson committed two turnovers and missed a jumper to pull the Fever to 66-65 with 54.7 seconds left.
Bird missed a 3 with 40 seconds to go and Davenport blocked Tanisha Wright's jumper 22 seconds later, setting up the final play.
Jackson had a quiet start, making just one free throw in the first half. She hit her first field goal - a 3-pointer - to stretch Seattle's lead to 49-38 with just less than 2 minutes left in the third.
January opened the fourth quarter with a corner 3-pointer during which she was fouled by Wright. January completed the four-point play to pull Indiana within 51-46.
However, Svetlana Abrosimova had a driving layup and Wright found a wide-open Little under the hoop to bloat the lead back to 55-46 with 8 1/2 minutes to go.
Seattle fell behind 12-3 to open the game before scoring the next 16 points and taking its first lead on a 3 by Stricklen in the final second of the first quarter.
Stricklen's fastbreak layup capped the run and put the Storm ahead 19-12 with 8:46 left in the second quarter. Catchings' layup 30 seconds layup ended Indiana's scoring drought.
Sasha Goodlett's layup put the Fever up 22-21 with 4:07 to go in the half, but Little's two free throws in the final minute gave the Storm a 29-27 lead at the break.










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