The Portland Fire racked up the team’s fourth win over the Seattle Storm Friday night, edging out their rivals 84-82 at the Climate Pledge Arena. The win also meant the Fire had a clean sweep of the Storm, largely due to the electric work of Oregon graduate Holly Winterburn.
Though not quite a hometown hero, Winterburn (who was born in the United Kingdom and attended college at U of O) stepped up when Portland and the Fire needed her, so she might as well be. Her 20-point finish last night marked the first time she’s ever scored double digits in a WNBA game, and 16 were made in the first quarter alone.
Bridget Carleton, who ended the night with a near 14-point, 9-rebound double-double, credited Winterburn with carrying the win for the team from the beginning. “She changed the game in the first quarter. Like, energy and stops. She was super,” Carleton said.
She also pointed out that despite the fact this is Winterburn’s first season in the WNBA, she’s far from being a rookie.
“Holly’s a pro,” Carleton added. “She’s a rookie in this league, but not a rookie. Like, she knows how to play against any kind of defense, any kind of player. So having her on the court, off the bench, it doesn’t feel like a rookie.”
For Winterburn, last night was just her night.
“I think I came out with good energy,” she explained. “When that first shot went in, I just kept going, and I think they didn’t really adjust to what we were doing, so we kind of scored the same way.”
The win was also the result of work she’s put in as part of the team’s “Get Better Group.” The name might sound initially surprising, but it’s not meant as a jab—it’s intentional. The group, run by the team’s assistant coach Sefu Bernard, also counts Jordan Harrison and Nyadiew Pouch among its members.
The goal of the group is in the name: improvement. Players in the GBG spend extra time at practice working on skills, something that’s clearly paying off. Winterburn, Harrison, and Pouch all have had big games for the Fire as of late, and have been key players during recent wins.
As Winterburn told reporters last night, Bernard “makes a point of saying we get to be there, and we get to get better—we don’t have to be there.” She added, “We really balanced it with getting better and having fun at the same time, and now it’s something we all look forward to.”
Portland managed to hang on to a lead for much of the game, and came into the fourth quarter up by 15 points. But the Storm, who had just snapped an 11-game losing streak on August 10 when they beat the Chicago Sky, waged a comeback and the two teams were only separated by three points with 30 seconds left in the game.
It’s here that I’ll clue you in on something you may not know: those 30 seconds can drag on for an eternity, as players foul one another and coaches blow through their remaining timeouts. Thirty seconds in basketball is usually not the same as 30 seconds in real life. And, as it usually goes, Carla Leite was fouled with 12.7 seconds on the clock and hit the free throw line for two—she missed one, but made one, which brought the Fire up by four. Believe it or not, a point differential of four points with 12 seconds left in a game doesn’t guarantee success.
That was proven true by the Storm’s Natisha Hiedeman, who sank a three-pointer with 6.6 seconds on the clock and brought the two teams within one point of one another. The Fire got the ball back, and Leite was immediately fouled. Again, she hit one and made one—and, again the teams were within three points of one another.
Hiedeman, hoping lightning would strike twice, snagged the ball with 5.1 seconds on the clock, fired off another three-pointer, and both teams watched as the ball headed toward the basket and hit the rim right at the buzzer—cementing the win for the Fire.
Next, the Fire will head to Phoenix, where they’ll meet the Mercury on Sunday, August 16. From there, the team will take on the Toronto Tempo in Vancouver on Friday, August 21, before returning home to host the Washington Mystics on Sunday, August 23.