Breanna Stewart scored 15 of her 17 points in the first quarter and the Seattle Storm routed the Connecticut Sun 79-57 on Thursday night to win the inaugural WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Fellow U.S. Olympic gold medalists Jewell Loyd added 16 points and Sue Bird had 10 to help lead Seattle.
The in-season tournament saw Connecticut and Seattle finish as the top teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences. Members of the Storm earned in excess of $30,000 per player, while those on Connecticut earned $10,000 per player.
Despite not having the entire team together until game day, Seattle jumped out to a 28-18 lead after the first quarter behind Stewart. She made five of her six shots in the period.
DeWanna Bonner scored 11 points and Jonquel Jones added 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Sun. They shot just 33% from the field.
Connecticut had no Olympians on its roster and had a few weeks to prepare for this contest.
WATCH | Storm collect inaugural WNBA Commissioner’s Cup:
The WNBA resumes its regular season Sunday after a month-long break for the Olympics.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert tossed a ceremonial ball up before the game to commemorate the event. Stewart lost the tip to Jonquel Jones.
The game featured next generation tracking technology as players from both teams wore sensors that provided data such as how fast players sprinted or how often the jumped. The WNBA also used optical tracking technology that generated three dimensional immersive highlights that were used during the Amazon Prime Video broadcast.
Seattle’s Katie Lou Samuelson returned to the court after getting COVID right before the Olympics. She was supposed to play on the U.S. 3-on-3 team, but contracted the virus a few days before the Tokyo Games began. The Americans won the inaugural gold medal.
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