Diana Taurasi’s long standout career is filled with accomplishments, but scoring more points than her age on Thursday was quite a stunner.
Taurasi also became the first WNBA player to reach 10,000 career points and is certainly beaming with confidence entering the Phoenix Mercury’s home game Saturday night against the Seattle Storm.
The 41-year-old Taurasi scored 42 points on Thursday — 32 in the second half — as the Mercury (7-19) broke a four-game losing skid with a 91-71 home win over the Atlanta Dream.
Taurasi is the oldest player in WNBA history to score 40 in a game and the first to reach the mark four times in a regular-season game. She completed the contest with 10,024 career points.
Taurasi will be looking to help Phoenix defeat the Storm (6-20) for the first time this season. Seattle won the first two encounters by an average of 18.5 points.
Taurasi struggled in both games, going scoreless in 23 minutes on June 13 and putting up 13 points in the rematch 11 days later.
Seattle is coming off Wednesday’s 76-65 home loss to the Dallas Wings. It came after the Storm won back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Seattle’s Jewell Loyd scored 31 points to raise her WNBA-leading scoring average to 24.6 points per game. She is chasing Taurasi’s single-season record of 25.3 set in 2006.
It was the eighth 30-point effort of the season for Loyd, who missed a span of 5:04 of the first period due to a right ankle injury before returning to outscore fellow star Notre Dame product Arike Ogunbowale of Dallas (27 points).
Phoenix center Brittney Griner (mental health) has missed the past three games, but the Mercury said Friday evening that she was expected to return for the Seattle game.
