Mercury fall to Lynx; WNBA Western Conference Finals Tied at One

By Francisco Romero

In their quest to reach the WNBA Finals, the Phoenix Mercury visited Minnesota to face the Lynx, last year’s champions.  It was a tough task for Phoenix, the Lynx showed why they are the defending champions; Minnesota beat the Mercury 82-77.

Picture Courtesy of WNBA.com

The series is now tied at 1 game a-piece (three game series).

It was a seesaw game, until the fourth quarter when Lynx’s guard Maya Moore took over the game scoring 13 of her 32 points in that last quarter. 

Early in the game Phoenix dominated, Minnesota went 2-for-14 from the floor in the first quarter. It didn’t convert its first field goal of the game until the 4:54 mark when Lindsay Whalen scored on a layup.

The Lynx trailed 22-9 after the first quarter.  The game was tied at 75 with 23.3 seconds to play. 

Moore hit three 3-pointers towards the end of the game.  The Lynx had a 13-0 run to come from behind.

The Lynx outscored the Mercury 26-15 in the fourth quarter.

“We always believe in each other, that if we stick to what we are doing something is eventually going to break, because we are going to keep running it hard, trusting what we are doing,” said Moore during the postgame conference. “We want to carry that over to game three,” she added.

For the Mercury Diana Taurasi finished the game with 23 points and six rebounds, Candice Dupree added 18 points and nine boards while Brittney Griner added 14 points.

“They’re the defending champs,” Taurasi said, according the WNBA.com. “We knew they weren’t just going to fold and being content with packing their bags and going home. It was a great effort from them and we expected that.”

Phoenix will hosts the Lynx in Game 3 of the WNBA Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, September 2, the game starts at 7 p.m.