And There Off..... 2009 WNBA Season Starts

story by Tamara Moore
photo by Onika Craven

The Race for the 2009 WNBA Championship started today in the Season Opener for every WNBA team. The Lynx's opened the season with the Chicago Sky @ the Target Center in front a crowd of 8,708 where the Lynx gave a great glimpse into what can possible be a breakout season for the young team. With the team's average age around 23 to 24 the Lynx showcased a very spirited and dominant opening game.

The Chicago Sky showed a very balanced attack to start the game while breaking out to a quick 15-4 lead in the first quarter. After the entrance of Renee Montgomery at the 5:24 mark of the first quarter the Lynx went on a 17-8 run to finish the first quarter locking the game at 21. Seimone Augustus finished the first quarter with 9 points fueling the Lynx's comeback.

The Lynx's made sure that their comeback wasn't just a comeback. They made sure that it continued in the second quarter starting the quarter on a 9-0 run forcing Chicago to call an early timeout. Candice Wiggins showed very aggressive drives leading to numerous And 1's and lots of energy. But the Lynx's couldn't find a answer for Jia Perkins Early. She was able to exploit her mismatches by knocking down a few 3's and key drives. But as the first half wrapped up the Minnesota managed to finish the half on a 13-5 run to take a nice 11 point lead with a 56-45 lead into halftime. A 3 pointer by Roneeka Hodges, short jumper by Latoya Pringle, Montgomery with a fastbreak layup and 3, Augustus short baby hooker and Anosike's freethrow showed that the Lynx will be a team that will have a lot of contribution from a collective number of players.

As the start of the second half began, the Lynx's wouldn't let up and started the half on a 6-0 run while outscoring the sky 29-19 to lead 85-64 after 3. The game was never in doubt after that which allowed Coach Jennifer Gillom to give everyone on her bench a chance to see action in a 102-85 season opening win for the Lynx's. Coach Gillom was proud of her young team saying " I'm so proud of my team. I just thought they did an excellent job tonight of just executing defense. The things I was looking for, but the most important thing I told them I was looking for was effort. She gave a lot of credit to Renee Montgomery in her match up tonight with Kristi Tolliver of Sky saying that "She was the best rookie point guard of the night" but when Montgomery was asked numerous times how she felt she was humble saying " That was the least of my worries, I really wasn't thinking about the matchup. I'm just happy with how the team played."

So with that said the Lynx's are definitely off to a great start but hey, there are 33 more regular season games to go. So we will just have to wait and see how this young team will continue to grow.