The San Antonio Stars are playing their best basketball of the season and look to continue their recent momentum when they host the up-and-down Seattle Storm on Saturday.
Fatigue will be a factor as both teams played Friday night, with the Stars winning at home versus Washington and Seattle losing on the road in Arlington, Texas, against the Dallas Wings.
San Antonio (5-21) can't wait to get back on the court after posting a 76-74 victory over the Mystics on Friday. Isabelle Harrison scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Stars won consecutive games for the first time this season, on the heels of a 93-81 triumph over New York on Tuesday.
It was the Stars' first back-to-back victories since July 2015, when they defeated Indiana and Atlanta in consecutive home games.
San Antonio entered the fourth quarter of Friday's win down 59-57 but the game swung back and forth in the final 10 minutes, featuring five ties and four lead changes. The Stars went up for the final time 75-74 on a jumper by Kayla Alexander with 49.1 seconds to play. Dearica Hamby hit one free throw with 8.6 seconds left for the final margin.
Alexander and Kayla McBride added 12 points each for Stars (5-21) and Alex Montgomery scored 10 for San Antonio, which was the last team in the WNBA to win back-to-back games this season.
"All the posts, we went out there today, we just played our game," Alexander said. "I'm just thankful I was able to go out there and produce, and just go out there and play ball and have fun."
The Storm head south down Interstate 35 after losing to Dallas 93-80 on Friday. Jewell Loyd led Seattle (10-14) with 23 points and Breanna Stewart added 21, topping the 20-point mark for the 11th straight game.
Seattle's defense allowed the high-scoring Wings to racked up 32 points in the second quarter and hit on 16 of its 23 3-point shots in the loss. The Storm were outrebounded 46-25 in the defeat, including 16-5 on the offensive boards.
The Storm has been plagued by inconsistency all season. After starting the season 5-2, Seattle has won just five games since and has failed to win consecutive games since May 26-28.
"The biggest thing is just continuing to fight throughout the entire forty minutes of the game," Stewart said. "There's spurts where we get frustrated, we put ourselves down, our heads down, and instead we need to continue to look forward to the next game and focus on that and not letting other teams do what they want and let them take the game."
Seattle is 37-29 all-time against the Stars, a team it has played at least three times every year since 2000. However, the Storm is just 14-18 in games played in the Alamo City, including an 85-76 win on June 6.
Seattle also beat the Stars at home 75-57 on June 18 and will host San Antonio one more time on Aug. 18.
