SEATTLE — Nneka Ogwumike had 23 points and 12 rebounds, Rae Burrell scored 22 points, and the visiting Sparks beat the Seattle Storm 90-74 on Sunday in their final game before the FIBA World Cup break.
The Sparks scored the first 13 points in an opening 18-2 run and Dearica Hamby’s layup with 5:45 left in the first half capped an 11-0 spurt that gave them a 39-20 lead. Seattle shot 32% (12 of 38) from the field and two of 11 (18%) from behind the arc before going into halftime trailing by 19. The Storm were just as bad from three-point range in the second half, finishing four of 22.
Cameron Brink had 11 points on three-of-15 shooting for the Sparks (15-25).
Flau’jae Johnson scored 11 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter and Dominique Malonga had 17 points, on eight-of-21 shooting, and 15 rebounds for the Storm (8-32). Zia Cooke made six of 17 from the field for 14 points.
Seattle is 1-18 against Western Conference teams this season, its only win coming at the Sparks, 82-64, on July 6.
The Storm’s Jordan Horston fell awkwardly midway through the third quarter, limped to the locker room and did not return.
Awa Fam and Natisha Hiedeman did not play for the Storm.
Jason Grant made a diving catch in the end zone with eight seconds left to lift Crenshaw past host Palisades 34-29 on Friday night in a battle of likely City Section Open Division playoff teams.
Danniel Flowers escaped the pocket, rolled to his right and lofted a pass to Grant, who saved the day for the Cougars after it looked like Palisades would pull off the upset against the team that lost in the section championship game last fall. Flowers ran for the two-point conversion.
“I ran an outside go route and I had to stretch out but I got my knees down,” Grant said. “We’ve been working all summer and the hard work paid off.”
Grant gave a shout-out to interim coach Terrence Whitehead, who guide the Cougars to the finals last fall in the absence of longtime coach Robert Garrett, who was put on administrative leave just before the start of the 2025 season.
“I love him,” Grant said. “He trusted me enough to put me in.”
After the kickoff, Palisades had one last chance from its own 26-yard line with two seconds left but Kyion Rattler intercepted Robert Holohan’s desperation pass at the Cougars’ 35.
Joshua Jones scores Crenshaw’s first touchdown in Friday night’s 34-29 season-opening win at Palisades.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Flowers, who was injured on a sack earlier in the fourth quarter but returned to lead his team on the game-winning drive, threw touchdown passes of 46 yards to Rattler in the second quarter and 23 yards to Jovan Clark with 6:04 left in the fourth quarter that gave Crenshaw a 29-26 lead.
Playing on campus for the first time since the 2024 playoffs, Palisades regained the lead on Holohan’s 33-yard strike to Malachi Ross with 2:48 left for the 29-26 lead. The Dolphins thought they recovered a fumble at the Crenshaw 20 on the ensuing kickoff but the officials awarded the visitors the ball and tacked on a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that allowed the Cougars to start their final drive at their own 35.
“I had to come back in,” Flowers said of his late-game heroics. “I saw the D-end coming out so I just had to wait for a teammate to get open. We knew we’d win if we played four quarters. When we got down we kept our composure.”
Joshua Jones ran for 124 yards and one touchdown in 24 carries, De’Andre Kirkpatrick ran for a one-yard touchdown and intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter to keep Crenshaw close.
“We for sure want to go back to the finals and win,” Flowers added. “Defense wins games, but our offense won this one.”
Making his first varsity start, Holohan threw for three touchdowns and ran for another as the Dolphins established themselves as early Open Division contenders. They lost to Garfield in the Open Division quarterfinals last season, playing every game on the road as a consequence of the Palisades fire.
The teams were meeting for the first time since 1984 when both played in the Crosstown League.
WASHINGTON — Sonia Citron scored 21 points, Shakira Austin had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and the Washington Mystics rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Sparks 80-70 on Saturday night.
Former USC star Kiki Iriafen added 19 points and eight rebounds for Washington (20-14), which was coming off two straight losses at Las Vegas. Citron had eight assists and six rebounds.
Austin’s layup with six minutes left in the fourth quarter gave Washington a 65-64 lead, its first advantage since it was 41-39 at halftime. With three minutes left, Citron hit a three-pointer for a 74-69 lead and the Mystics closed it out with a 9-1 run.
Washington outscored the Sparks 25-12 in the fourth quarter.
The Sparks led 26-24 one minute into the second quarter before Washington went on an 11-2 run in the next three minutes to lead 35-28. Two three-pointers from Burrell and one from Erica Wheeler got the Sparks within 41-39 at halftime.
Wheeler and Burrell opened the second half with back-to-back threes and the Sparks led 52-43 three minutes into the third quarter. The Mystics scored the next eight points and the Sparks held a 58-55 lead heading to the fourth.
The Mystics had won seven straight before their back-to-back losses to the Aces.
The Sparks have lost four straight and 11 of 13. Cameron Brink (ribs) did not play, two days after she took a shoulder to the midsection from New York’s Breanna Stewart.
NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu scored 20 points and the New York Liberty avoided one of the biggest collapses in WNBA history, holding off the Sparks 85-81 on Thursday night.
New York (21-14) led 69-41 early in the fourth quarter and looked poised to cruise to an easy victory when the Sparks scored 21 straight points to get within striking distance.
The Sparks (12-21) only trailed 82-79 with 26.6 seconds left and were in position to match the Chicago Sky for the biggest comeback in league history. The Sky rallied from 28-down to beat Las Vegas in 2022. Rae Burrell got the Sparks within one on a reverse layup with 22 seconds left. Ionescu hit two free throws with 14.8 remaining to restore the three-point advantage.
The Sparks had one last chance, but Ariel Atkins missed a three-pointer from the wing with seven seconds left and Ionescu hit a free throw with 3.2 seconds left to seal the win.
The Sparks also lost Cameron Brink earlier in the fourth quarter. She helped key the game-changing run, drawing an offensive foul on Breanna Stewart. Brink was down on the floor for a few minutes before being helped to the locker room with a towel over her head. She took a shot to the stomach area from Stewart to get the offensive foul called. A few minutes earlier Brink and Burrell banged heads.
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said Brink was being evaluated by doctors after a “brutal hit to the ribs”, but didn’t have an update other than that.
Cameron Brink controls the ball during the first half against New York on Thursday.
(Elsa Garrison / Getty Images)
Burrell finished with a career-high 28 points.
New York got a scare in the third when Ionescu left the game. She went down awkwardly after playing defense and quickly grabbed her right foot. She subbed out soon after and jogged up the tunnel back to the locker room area. She returned about four minutes later on the game clock to a nice ovation from the crowd.
Jonquel Jones was a big reason the Liberty built a 49-32 lead at the half with 10 points and 12 rebounds. New York extended the advantage to 26 after three quarters and 69-41 before the Sparks rallied.
New York was still playing without Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally. Coach Chris DeMarco said that there’s no timetable on Fiebich’s return and that Sabally, who has been sidelined for over a month with a concussion, was away from the team.
Up next for the Sparks: at Washington on Saturday.
Coming off their best win of the season in Minnesota on Thursday, the Sparks didn’t have much of that same energy to start their first home game since the trade deadline.
The fourth quarter, though, looked a lot like the best basketball they’ve played all season.
The Sparks came out flat and gave up 29 first-quarter points from the Golden State Valkyries in an 84-78 loss Sunday, their eighth in the last 10 games. They made it a game in the fourth with a 16-5 run but were too far back and it took just a couple of Valkyries shots to put the game out of reach.
An Ariel Atkins three-pointer with 2:18 left got the Sparks within one point, then after it was matched by Golden State, a three from Erica Wheeler made it a one-point contest again with 1:38 to go.
Nneka Ogwumike missed what would have been a tying shot with 52 seconds left before the Valkyries made it a two-possession score to close it out.
Wheeler missed two three-point attempts with less than 30 seconds left. She finished with 15 points while Ogwumike finished with a team-high 16 points.
There are 13 games left in the season and the Sparks are six games back of Dallas for the eighth and final WNBA playoff seed, giving them an uphill climb to get back in the postseason conversation.
On Sunday, the Sparks (12-19) committed five early turnovers and struggled to defend the perimeter against the shot-happy Valkyries, trailing 29-15 after one quarter.
After getting back within nine, the Sparks were down 45-32 at halftime following three consecutive buckets from Golden State guard Tiffany Hayes.
Sparks forward Nneka Ogwumike, right, reacts after being fouled by Golden State center Kiah Stokes in the first half Sunday.
(Harry How / Getty Images)
Cameron Brink hit a three-pointer to get back within 12 with 7:27 left in the fourth. The Sparks outscored Golden State 31-20 overall in the fourth to get back within four with less than four minutes to play.
Brink, who had seven points, seven rebounds and two steals, got into foul trouble in the third quarter, going into the fourth with four. Rae Burrell, who had scored in double figures in every game since July 22, didn’t score until the fourth quarter and finished with nine points.
The Valkyries capitalized with 18 points off the Sparks’ 11 turnovers.
Kiana Williams scored 10 points, her most since she joined the team from Phoenix in June off of a developmental deal.
The Sparks have not beaten Golden State (23-9) since a 84-67 victory on May 16, 2025, the first game in Valkyries franchise history.
On Sunday, the Valkyries were led by 15 points from Cecilia Zandalasini, who shot five for five from three-point range.
After she scored seven points against Minnesota, newly acquired guard Monique Akoa Makani missed Sunday’s game with a right ankle injury she sustained in the final minute against the Lynx.
The Sparks will host Phoenix (12-22) in Kelsey Plum’s return to L.A. on Tuesday at USC’s Galen Center.
While Kelsey Plum was out with an ankle injury for the past week, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts called her the “head of the snake” of the team’s offense.
Plum, who entered the night leading the WNBA in scoring, netted 27 points but couldn’t save the Sparks from a fourth-quarter collapse and a 104-96 loss to the Dallas Wings at Crypto.com Arena on Friday night.
The Sparks’ offense looked better, but it had no answers for the three-headed attack of Arike Ogunbowale, Paige Bueckers and Jessica Shepherd, who spearheaded the Wings’ 63% shooting effort in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
The Sparks have lost three consecutive games for the first time since last June. They lost to Connecticut on May 30 before a poor offensive outing against Las Vegas on Tuesday. With Plum, they eclipsed their 69-point total from that game by midway through the third quarter Friday.
But Dallas’ offense was too much for the WNBA’s worst defense.
The Sparks led by as much as nine in the second quarter but surrendered the lead late in the quarter as the Wings shot 55% to cut the lead to one by halftime.
The Sparks led 78-77 going into the fourth after a back-and-forth third quarter, but Dallas went on a 15-5 run to lead by eight. It was the only cold quarter for the Sparks, who scored just 18 points, with more than half of their offense coming from Plum.
It was a two-point game with under two minutes to play when Ogunbowale collected a rebound off her own shot to give the Wings a two-possession lead before Plum missed a three-pointer and a free throw.
Nneka Ogwumike notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Ariel Atkins scored 16 points.
Ogunbowale scored a game-high 30 points while Bueckers posted a career-high 14 assists and Shepherd had 22 points and 15 rebounds.
Wings guard Odyssey Sims left the court in a wheelchair in the second quarter after she twisted her left ankle coming down from a rebound attempt; she didn’t return. In the fourth, Aziaha James had to be carried off by her teammates after she got hit hard by an Ogwumike screen.
The Sparks will host the expansion Portland Fire (6-6) on Sunday, who lost a tight game against Phoenix on Friday night.
