AP: Texas

07/20/2008

Associated Press

Seimone Augustus made 11 straight shots from the floor and finished with a season-high 30 points to lead the Minnesota Lynx to an 87-74 victory over the San Antonio Silver Stars on Saturday night.

Augustus missed a shot 4:10 into the contest and didn't miss again until 6:24 remained. She finished 12-of-15 in 35 minutes.

"Tonight, I just had a great shooting night," said Augustus, who was unaware she hit 11 in a row during one stretch. "Most of it was from my teammates. We fed off our post players and found our spots on the court."

Candice Wiggins added 24 points for Minnesota (11-11).

Becky Hammon scored 24, Ann Wauters had 18 and Sophia Young added 15 for San Antonio (16-8), which dropped out of first place in the Western Conference. The Silver Stars are even with Seattle in the win-loss column, but the Storm have a better winning percentage.

It's only the second time in 13 games that San Antonio lost at home.

Lynx coach Don Zierden missed his second game because of an illness. He's expected back Tuesday afternoon when the Lynx return to Minnesota to play Seattle. Assistant Julie Plank coached the team in Zierden's absence, as she did Thursday against Houston.

The Lynx had a 16-point lead when Charde Houston scored on a layup with 1:30 left in the third quarter.

Hammon hit a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left in the third quarter to start San Antonio's comeback. That cut Minnesota's lead to 11 points to start the fourth quarter.

The Silver Stars cut it to six points when Wauters scored inside and made a free throw when she was fouled by Vanessa Hayden-Johnson, who scored 10 points.

"No matter what Seimone was doing on offense, she pulled us off to the side when they were making the run and said, 'Forget offense. We've got to start working on defense,'" Wiggins said.

San Antonio could have cut it to four points on the next trip down the floor, but Ruth Riley was called for an illegal screen and the Lynx got the ball to Augustus. She hit her 11th straight field goal to give the Lynx a 66-58 lead with 7:31.

"Honestly, I don't remember a lot of defensive breakdowns," Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes said. "I remember (Augustus) scoring over the top of us. You try to make good players score over top of the defense, and she did. She was magnificent."

San Antonio trailed by four with 4:18 left in the first half. But the Lynx scored nine straight during the next 2:46 to go ahead 40-27 with less than two minutes before halftime.

Augustus shot 7-of-8 for 15 points as the Lynx led 44-33 at halftime.