Zia Cooke Dropped a Career-High 25 and the Emerald City FINALLY Got Its First Home Storm Win!

HOLY MOLY, did you SEE that game last night?! The Storm came out swinging at Climate Pledge Arena, absolutely laying down the law against the Connecticut Sun, snagging our first home W of the season with a dominant 77-59 victory! And who was leading the charge? None other than Zia Cooke, going absolutely OFF for a career-high 25 points! This team needed that win, and boy, did they deliver. Rookie Flau'jae Johnson also showed up HUGE, putting up an all-around monster performance. After a tough start to the season, this is the energy we've been craving!

Cooke's Career Night Lifts the Storm

Let's talk about Zia Cooke for a minute, because she was on another planet. This fourth-year guard from South Carolina just went nuclear, notching a new career-high with 25 points. Think about it, she had 16 points by HALFTIME, already crushing her previous high of 14 points! And get this: in the second quarter alone, Cooke outscored the entire Sun team 8-7. That's not just a good quarter, that's straight-up disrespectful, and we LOVE to see it! Her scoring explosion was the shot in the arm this team desperately needed to turn things around.

Rookie Flau'jae Johnson Answers the Call

But it wasn't just the Zia Cooke show, folks. Remember how rookie Flau'jae Johnson was benched for the fourth quarter in our last loss to the Sun? Well, she came back with a vengeance! The first-round pick out of LSU put up an incredible 17 points, pulled down seven rebounds, dished out five assists, and even swatted away three shots. That's stuffing the stat sheet, plain and simple. Johnson was a crucial piece in us not trailing after her pull-up jumper late in the first half. Natisha Hiedeman also chipped in with 11 points and six assists, showing off that depth! We won the season series against the Sun 2-1, including an 89-82 victory just last week, so we know we can beat these guys.

The game definitely had its ups and downs. The Sun actually started hot, scoring the first eight points before Jordan Horston finally got us on the board. We even went into the second quarter trailing 21-19. But then the Storm flipped a switch, closing the second quarter on a massive 14-3 run to take a 37-28 lead into the break. Even with our starting center Dominique Malonga still recovering from a concussion (and the Sun missing Brittney Griner too), we battled. We shot a solid 46.7% from the field, while holding the Sun to a measly 37.1%. This win, the first at Climate Pledge Arena this season, feels like a massive step forward.

What's Next for Our Emerald City Storm?

This is it, 12s. This is the momentum we've been waiting for. Getting that first home win under our belts, especially against a team we've now beaten twice this season, is huge. It's about building confidence, finding our rhythm, and showing the rest of the league what the Storm is truly capable of. We needed to show up at Climate Pledge, and we did. Let's keep this energy going and turn this early season around!

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.