Riquana Williams Leads Tulsa in Loss

TULSA, Oklahoma - The Tulsa Shock lost its sixth straight game Saturday night, falling to the Minnesota Lynx, 86-75.

Lindsey Whalen scored 25 points to lead all scorers and also dished out 11 assists. Maya Moore added 22 for the Lynx and Rebekkah Brunson had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Riquana Williams led Tulsa with 22 points for the game, while Nicole Powell added 16. Liz Cambage scored 13 points and had eight rebounds.

Rookie Skylar Diggins went scoreless for the first time in her rookie season and left the game with 3:12 remaining with an ankle injury. Tulsa coach Gary Kloppenburg said after the game it didn't appear to be a serious injury.

Poor shooting and poor defense once again doomed the Shock. Tulsa shot just 38.8 percent from the field for the game and allowed the Lynx to shoot an astonishing 67 percent in the first half. Minnesota used that hot shooting start to lead by as many as 15 points in the first 20 minutes.

Minnesota grabbed a 31-17 lead with 8:09 left in the first half, but four straight 3-pointers from Tulsa, including three from Williams, cut the lead to six in just 90 seconds. The Lynx responded with a strong close to the half to lead 51-37.

Tulsa was unable to prevent Minnesota from blowing the game open in the second half, as the Lynx took a 64-43 lead with 5:43 left in the third quarter. The Shock cut the lead to 13 by the end of the quarter, but Minnesota pushed it back to 22 in the fourth quarter.

The Shock played Saturday's game without Glory Johnson, who suffered a neck injury on Thursday against Los Angeles.


(newson6.com)