The WNBA regular season is heating up, as the third week of action tipped off earlier this week. For the Seattle Storm, star guard Zia Cooke put on a show on Friday night.
The fourth-year veteran helped her team get a 77-59 victory over the Connecticut Sun, giving Seattle its second win of the season.
Cooke had herself a night, scoring a career-high 25 points—16 of those coming in the first half alone. She added five rebounds with an assist. Although Sun rookie Flau’Jae Johnson scored 17, the Storm’s defense held Connecticut to shoot just 35%.
The win was a bit of a revenge game for Seattle; who lost by two points 80-78 to Connecticut earlier in the season. Cooke told reporters after the game that she used the previous loss as motivation
"You just want to be intentional on the second game,” Cooke said via The Seattle Times when asked about playing the same team in consecutive games. “If I got beat to the goal on the first game, I’m not about to get beat to the goal by the same person in the second game. So, for me it’s like taking that personal. I take everything personal. You’re not going to beat them twice.
“So, for me, I got to step up defensively, and I just try to do my best just to be everywhere on the court. Coach Sonia challenged me in the last game. I feel like I didn’t bring anything. I didn’t help offensively or defensively, and I never want to do that to my team. I always want to be there for my team. So tonight, I feel like I just did that on the defensive end and it was really cool.”
Cooke isn’t the only former Gamecock having a great season. The Chicago Sky’s Kamilla Cardoso is having the best season of her career so far in her third WNBA season.
Congrats to Cooke on a career night! Next up for Seattle is a home game against the Washington Mystics Sunday at 6pm ET.
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