Photo credit: Vicente Cardenas/The Paisano

The Silver Stars faced a familiar foe on Tuesday night in the form of the Western Conference Division leading Minnesota Lynx (17-3). But for the fourth time this season, the Silver Stars (7-14) lost a double-digit game to the Lynx with a 93-80 defeat in the AT&T Center.

The Lynx recorded their season-high tenth win in a row behind the play of their three All-star’s Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen. Moore tied her single-season high of 26 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out six assists. Augustus added 21 points on 3-for-4 shooting from 3-point range and Whalen contributed 11 assists to go with 10 points.

The Silver Stars stayed in the game through the fourth quarter mainly because of center Danielle Adams who scored a season-high 31 points, 13 of which came in the final period. That was until the Lynx pushed their lead to as much as 16 points in the final two minutes resulting in a loss against a Lynx team that has been to the WNBA Finals the last two seasons.

Silver Stars guard Jia Perkins scored 18 points and Danielle Robinson had 10 assists and a season-high nine rebounds.

“You have to give credit to what an outstanding team Minnesota is,” Silver Stars head coach Dan Hughes said. “From an athletic perspective, they are deep, share the ball with each other, playing at a very high veteran speed, and they are impressive.”

The bright spot for the Silver Stars was Adams as she has become an offensive focal point during a season marred by injures. Adams showed range by making four 3-pointers in the game and then added 19 points from the field.

“I thought Danielle did a good job of mixing her inside and outside ball movement” Hughes said. “We have evolved during this period, especially going through the injuries, to play through Danielle in a lot of situations. Tonight was a good example of what she can do.”

The loss is difficult for Adams but the progress is something to build on with her performance against a top Western Conference team.

“It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that I can go out and provide that type of performance each and every night,” Adams said. “My teammates need it because we are down with injuries and it gives me confidence.”

The following road trip for the Silver Stars is a unique one as they play August 9th and 11th in back-to-back road games against the Seattle Storm (8-11). The Silver Stars are currently trailing the Storm for the final playoff spot with 13 games left in the season.