Help is on the way for the Seattle Storm.
Awa Fam, a 6-foot-4 center who was the No. 3 overall pick in this spring’s WNBA draft, recently helped Valencia Basket win the Liga Femenina Endesa championship in Spain and could join the Storm during their four-game homestand that begins Wednesday against the Connecticut Sun.
“We’re looking to having her … very soon,” said Storm coach Sonia Raman, who didn’t provide a specific date.
The Storm (1-3) have been without forwards Ezi Magbegor (foot) and Katie Lou Samuelson (knee), while second-year center Dominique Malonga, who leads the team in scoring (16.0 points per game) and rebounds (7.3), missed Sunday’s 89-78 defeat at Indiana while in the concussion protocol.
Malonga was ruled out on Tuesday evening.
Natisha Hiedeman scored 19 points to lead the Storm. Rookie Flau’jae Johnson added 14 and reserve guard Zia Cooke had 13.
“No. 1 is just playing with more pride and make sure we’re sticking together and going out there and just being ourselves,” Cooke said. “We just get in our heads a little bit. This next game we just need to make sure we stick together and we play together.”
Seattle’s lone victory this season was an 89-82 decision May 10 at Connecticut as Lexie Brown made five 3-pointers on her way to 17 points.
The Sun have lost all five of their games thus far.
It will be a homecoming of sorts for Connecticut guard Hailey Van Lith, picked up off waivers from Chicago. Van Lith grew up in Cashmere, Wash., about a two-hour, 15-minute drive east of Seattle.
Van Lith is averaging 11.2 points and 3.2 assists per game and is shooting 57.5% from the field.
The Sun are coming off an 83-82 loss Monday at expansion Portland despite 16 points from Brittney Griner, leaving her one point shy of 6,000 for her career. Van Lith, Aaliyah Edwards and Aneesah Morrow scored 12 apiece.
“We could have won it if we had stayed within ourselves and executed, so it’s disappointing, but I do think there’s an underlying silver lining to where we’ve made improvements at different things every game,” Van Lith told SLAM Magazine. “At the end of the day, we have to cross the finish line and get a win, so we can’t keep dragging this out, where we’re letting things slip by. We have to hold each other accountable, and I think we’ve done a good job with that amongst players and coaching staff.”
–Field Level Media
