By Percy Allen

The Seattle Times

Jordin Canada stepped to the line needing three free throws with 1.2 seconds left to force overtime.

However, the Storm guard missed two freebies and Seattle suffered its first loss home loss — a 69-67 defeat to the Phoenix Mercury in front of 8,002 spectators at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Before the Sunday afternoon thriller, eight of the Storm’s previous 10 games had been decided by 10 points or less with Seattle posting a 5-3 record in those eight games.

Once again, the Storm found itself in another tight contest.

However, this time the defending WNBA champions were unable to make the winning plays at the end as they did in their last outing — a 79-76 victory Friday over Chicago — when Canada was the star.

“We gave ourselves a chance to get back into the game and send it into overtime late,” Seattle coach Dan Hughes said. “There were a lot of things we did right, but we didn’t start well.”

Seattle fell behind by 13 points (28-15) midway in the second quarter before finishing the period with an 18-6 run to trail 34-33 at halftime.

The lead changed six times over the next 1 1/2 quarters before the Storm went ahead 56-55 with 5:22 left.

Phoenix answered with a 10-0 run and looked as if it was going to blow the game open after DeWanna Bonner’s three-pointer gave the Mercury a 65-56 lead with 2:58 remaining.

However, the Storm responded with a 10-4 run.

“In situations like that, it’s a will to win and to never quit,” said Seattle’s Mercedes Russell, who scored eight of her 12 points in the second half. “We really fought.”

After Sami Whitcomb drained a three-pointer to cut Seattle’s deficit to 69-66 and the Mercury missed a three at the other end, Canada raced down court and was fouled by Briann January on a three-point attempt.

Canada, who shoots 70 percent at the line, hit one of three free throws and the game ended after the Mercury secured the rebound.

“It came down to the wire,” Russell said. “We had a chance to tie it up, but basketball is a funny game. You can’t make every shot. Can’t make every free throw. Can’t make every layup.

“Credit to Phoenix for a tough game. That’s a very tough team. But we played a solid 40 minutes and it came down to the last minute. We fought as a team. We stuck together and just came up a little short.”

Whitcomb tallied a season-high 13 points, six rebounds and five assists while Alysha Clark had 12 points and Canada 10 for Seattle, which fell to 8-6.

The Storm never had control of the game despite finishing with more rebounds (37-29), assists (20-13) and holding Phoenix to 39.7% shooting from the field and 22.7% (6 of 27) behind the arc.

Seattle, which entered the game Sunday first in the WNBA in opponent’s turnovers (17.2), relies heavily on its defense to produce points for an offense missing three injured All-Stars (Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird).

The Storm averages 17.8 points a game off opponent’s turnovers.

However, Seattle was unable to rattle Phoenix’s ball-handlers. The Mercury finished with just six turnovers while Seattle had 12.

Hughes also lamented an inability to get to the foul line. The Storm had just one free-throw attempt in the first three quarters and finished 6 of 9 at the charity stripe.

“We’re 1 or 2 in the league (in free-throw attempts) because we get fouled,” Hughes said. “That’s a way this team wins games so when we’re not getting there that’s an issue.”

Another concern is the recent diminishing returns from forward Natasha Howard, who is hampered with double-teams.

The Storm’s leading scorer failed to reach double-digits for the first time this season and was held to nine points on 4-for-15 shooting.

In the past three games, Howard is shooting 26.7 percent (12 of 45) from the field.

“They really doubled and congested her and they did it really early,” Hughes said. “What we got to do — and this is a learning process with the group that we have right now — we got to be able to play out of that and put them in rotation. And we got to do it quickly.

“If they’re going to commit that kind of congestion to Natasha, then we got to play out of it and go from there. … They’re loading up on her right now and we’re working on getting this team to understand that and make them have to pay in a different kind of way.”

Similarly, the Storm doubled-teamed Brittney Griner in the post, but the All-Star center converted 10 of 14 shots and tied Bonner for game-high scoring with 20 points.

No one else had more than seven points for the Mercury, which improved to 5-5.

“We got to learn things whether we win or lose,” Hughes said. “Tonight unfortunately, we learn as we lose.”