Phoenix's Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi lead Mercury's 93-81 victory over Storm

PHOENIX — With her nose throbbing, Swin Cash let go of pain with a few words that also stung.

It led to the second technical foul of her career, a good free throw by Phoenix Mercury guard Cappie Pondexter and the Storm's largest deficit of Wednesday's 93-81 loss at US Airways Center.

"It was something I can't say, my Grandma would be upset," Cash said. "I got knocked in the head a couple of times and I felt like it was getting out of hand. When things are getting out of hand to an extent you want to voice your opinion. Could I have done it on a better way? Probably."

The team as a whole could have handled the third quarter better. The Storm (6-4) was outscored 25-11 as the Mercury set the tempo from the start of the third quarter. Phoenix (7-4) opened the second half with an 11-0 run to erase a 50-47 Storm halftime advantage.

From there it got physical, sloppy and teetered on a blow out as Cash's technical, called by referee Kurt Walker, with 1:06 remaining in the third quarter gave the Mercury a 72-57 lead.

"We just had a hard time getting to the free-throw line," said Storm coach Brian Agler, whose team made 20 of 22 attempts with only seven of those coming in the second half. "I guess the officials think we need to play a little bit stronger."

The Storm showed a ton more poise in the fourth, closing to 76-74 on three-point play by Lauren Jackson with 6:46 remaining.

It wasn't a tight game for long as Phoenix went on another 11-0 scoring binge to lead 87-74 with 4:19 remaining.

"Even with the crappy third quarter we had, we cut it two in the fourth," guard Sue Bird said. "Things just didn't go our way in the end."

The Storm just ended a tough portion of its schedule, playing seven of the first 10 games on the road, and the only days off have been travel days.

The frustration and weariness might have led to the difficult stretch in the second half. In addition to Cash's technical, Jackson was also hit with a technical and Tanisha Wright was called for a flagrant 1 foul (it was reduced from a flagrant 2 after video review) on the Mercury's DeWanna Bonner, who made the two free throws for a 66-55 advantage with 3:51 remaining.

"As a team you never want to make excuses and blame the refs, but they are going to have an impact on the game," Bird said. "It affected us. It's really how you react to these things. We just didn't react well and we were doing things that were uncharacteristic of our team."

The Mercury might have played more physical than the June 21 meeting in Phoenix, a 93-84 Seattle win, because the Storm out-rebounded the Mercury 37-22. This time around it was a dead heat, at 32 rebounds each.

"They always compete," said Pondexter, who finished with 22 points, a career-high 11 rebounds and eight assists. "We just wanted to frustrate them. It was a physical game and a lot of back and forth and a lot of crazy stuff happening in the game. For us to get this win, we had to match their intensity and we didn't do that last time."

In addition to Pondexter's near triple-double, Diana Taurasi had 22 points and Tangela Smith had 16 points and seven rebounds. Forward Le'Coe Willingham had 15 points.

All five Storm starters reached double figures led by Cash and Jackson with 17 points apiece.

The Storm will be at home for eight of its next 10 games.

"It's been a stretch," Agler said. "You can't take anything for granted."