Seattle Storm beats defending WNBA champion Liberty 89-79

SEATTLE — Nneka Ogwumike scored 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting, Skylar Diggins added 20 points and the Seattle Storm beat the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty 89-79 on Sunday.

Seattle (9-5) has won three games in a row and six of seven.

New York (10-3) has lost back-to-back road games and three of four overall. The Liberty committed a season-high 21 turnover, which Seattle converted into 22 points.

Gabby Williams had 12 points, a career-high 10 assists, six rebounds and four steals. Williams had her first career double-double last time out in a 90-83 win over Las Vegas on Friday.

Williams nearly had the ball stripped but secured it and nearly threw it away but Ogwumike made a finger-tip catch and hit a 3 just before the shot clock expired to give Seattle an 85-79 lead with 1:30 left in the game.

Breanna Stewart led the Liberty with 18 points.

Ogwumike grabbed seven rebounds and moved past Tina Thompson (3,070) into ninth in WNBA history with 3,077 career rebounds.

Sabrina Ionescu (neck), Jonquel Jones (ankle) and Leonie Fiebich (overseas) did not play for the Liberty. Rebekah Gardner and Marine Johannes made their first starts of the season for the short-handed Liberty. Johannes hit two 3s and scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the first half and finished with 17 points.

Up next

The Storm play the second of three consecutive home games Tuesday against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. The Liberty play at Golden State on Wednesday.