Zia Cooke scores 25 to propel Storm past Sun

Zia Cooke scored a career-high 25 points as the Seattle Storm defeated the visiting Connecticut Sun 77-59 Friday night.

Rookie Flau'jae Johnson, a first-round pick out of LSU who was benched for the fourth quarter of Wednesday's 80-78 loss to the Sun, added 17 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots for Seattle (2-4), which won at Climate Pledge Arena for the first time this season. Natisha Hiedeman contributed 11 points and six assists.

Diamond Miller led Connecticut (1-6) with 13 points and Aaliyah Edwards added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Seattle won the season series 2-1 after claiming an 89-82 victory last week at Connecticut.

Both teams were without their starting center for the second straight game. Connecticut's Brittney Griner, a 10-time All-Star, was sidelined by a right rib injury and Seattle's Dominique Malonga was still recovering from a concussion.

The Sun's Hailey Van Lith, a native of Cashmere, Wash., made a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to get Connecticut within 53-46 before the Storm pulled away, taking a 21-point advantage.

The Sun scored the game's first eight points, holding Seattle scoreless until Jordan Horston made a turnaround, fadeaway jumper with 6:36 left in the first quarter.

Connecticut took a 21-19 lead into the second and didn't trail until Johnson made a pull-up jumper with 6:37 left in the half.

Seattle closed the second on a 14-3 run to take a 37-28 lead at the intermission. Cooke, a fourth-year guard out of South Carolina, surpassed her previous high of 14 points by the half, as she had 16 -- outscoring the Sun 8-7 by herself in the second quarter.

The Storm extended their lead to as many as 15 points in the third before the Sun clawed back within 53-43, holding Seattle scoreless for the final 4:06 of the quarter.

Seattle shot 46.7% from the field (28 of 60) while limiting the Sun to 37.1% (23 of 62), including 4 of 17 from 3-point range.

--Field Level Media