Mercury stun Lynx

Target Center was braced for closure. The 10,824-strong crowd sensed a second straight semifinal round triumph after the Lynx built a 16-point advantage at the break. The blue and green had never lost a match carrying a double-digit lead into the second half — not once in 61 instances since they were founded in 1999. History was clearly on their side. All the same, the Mercury refused to fold in the face of seeming certainty. And lo and behold, the hosts somehow managed to snatch defeat from the throes of victory; when the final buzzer sounded, they were too stunned to consider their wounds as anything but self-inflicted.

- ANTHONY L. CUAYCONG

To be sure, the Mercury did a lot of heavy lifting in forging the improbable comeback. Their resilience was apparent after halftime and until overtime came and went. In the third quarter, they reeled off a 12-0 run to breathe life to their moribund campaign. And from there, momentum seeped away from the Lynx, first slowly, then all at once. They simply could not be denied, with Satou Sabally scoring 11 of her 24 in the fourth and Alyssa Thomas once again impact