Young hits two free throws with 3.8 seconds left to give Silver Stars 74-72 win over Lynx

Young’s late FTs lift Silver Stars past Lynx

MINNEAPOLIS — Sophia Young’s two free throws with 3.8 seconds to play lifted the San Antonio Silver Stars to a 74-72 win over the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night.

Chamique Holdsclaw led San Antonio with 17 points, while Becky Hammon and Roneeka Hodges each had 14. The Silver Stars (8-13) won just their third road game of the season and moved a half-game ahead of the Lynx (7-13) into second place in the woeful Western Conference.

Minnesota’s Seimone Augustus led all scorers with 22 points, but the Lynx lost their second game in a row. Augustus, who was coming off a disastrous 4-for-17 shooting performance in Saturday’s loss to conference-leading Seattle, hit a pair of shots in the final 1:10 to tie the score at 72-all.

However, Rebekkah Brunson fouled Young en route to the basket in the final seconds, setting up the winning free throws.

Augustus had a shot to tie at the buzzer, but the ball clanked off the rim.

Minnesota emerged with a 40-35 lead at halftime, after an opening 20 minutes that featured 10 lead changes. Down 8-0 less than 2 minutes into the game, the Silver Stars went on a 12-0 run to take their first lead and hit six 3-pointers in the half. Holdsclaw hit two of them, and led San Antonio with 10 points at the break.

Her effort was matched by Nicky Anosike, who had 10 in the first half for Minnesota.

San Antonio, which had lost four of its previous five games, held Minnesota’s Lindsey Whalen to just four points. Whalen had been averaging more than 14 per game.