Storm use dominant 3rd quarter to bury Liberty

Gabby Williams led a balanced offensive attack with 16 points, and the Seattle Storm beat the New York Liberty 79-70 on Sunday thanks largely to a 22-6 advantage in the third quarter.

The Liberty led by three at half-time and attempted to rally in the fourth quarter but fell short.

Williams, who had seven points and three steals in the decisive third period, finished 7 for 13 from the field while adding seven rebounds and five assists for the Storm (12-7).

Nneka Ogwumike had 15 points for Seattle, while Ezi Magbegor had 14 and Skyler Diggins chipped in 13 points and a team-high six assists.

Sabrina Ionescu led New York (12-6) with 22 points and made five 3-pointers. She also finished with nine rebounds and six assists.

The Liberty, who fell to 4-6 in their last 10, again played without center Jonquel Jones due to an ankle injury.

Breanna Stewart had a hard time finding the bottom of the net, finishing with eight points on 4-for-17 shooting.

League-leading Lynx hold off Sky

Courtney Williams had a stat-stuffing, 25-point performance, Napheesa Collier added 21 points and the Minnesota Lynx held on to beat the Chicago Sky 80-75.

Williams shot 10 of 17 from the floor to reach a new season high and added eight rebounds and six assists as the WNBA-leading Lynx (17-2) won their fifth consecutive game.

Collier, the league’s leading scorer, saw her average dip slightly to 24.3 points per game after shooting 7 for 16.

Diamond Miller added 10 points, five rebounds and three assists for Minnesota.

Chicago led 24-10 at the end of the first quarter, but Minnesota stormed back to lead by one at the half.

Rachel Banham made six 3-pointers and led the Sky with 20 points.

Angel Reese finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the season.

Gray, Aces extend Sun’s woes

Chelsea Gray moved up to sixth on the WNBA’s career assists list, A’ja Wilson scored 19 points and the Las Vegas Aces won 86-68 in Connecticut to extend the Sun’s franchise-long losing streak to 10 games.

Gray finished with eight assists, giving her 1,710 in her career and passing Aces coach Becky Hammon (1,708) on the league’s career leaderboard.

Las Vegas (9-9) led wire-to-wire, thanks in large part to a 44.26 scoring advantage in the paint.

Wilson scored 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting and added four blocked shots on the defensive end.

Dana Evans added 18, while NaLyssa Smith recorded her first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Aneesah Morrow led Connecticut (2-16) with 12 points as the Sun shot 38.1 percent from the floor.