Sami Whitcomb’s strong performance not enough as Sabrina Ionescu wins three-point contest
By Charles Hamaker
Las Vegas, NV – Seattle Storm sharpshooting guard Sami Whitcomb put in a strong effort in the WNBA three-point contest but couldn’t bring home the hardware from the event. New York Liberty and University of Oregon alum Sabrina Ionescu splashed her way to a win, leaving Whitcomb little to no run for error. While it is All-Star weekend and not as though the Seattle guard is in the most critical position by any means considering that these events have little impact, it could’ve been cool to see a Storm player take some hardware home as none of the participants have ever won the skills challenge or three-point contest. Whitcomb becomes the first Seattle player to advance to the second round since the WNBA brought the event back in 2017.
Seattle Storm shooting guard Sami Whitcomb’s 2023 season through pictures, to this point (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Whitcomb splashes her way to the second round
Storm shooting guard Sami Whitcomb became the third Seattle player this year to partake in the All-Star activities in Las Vegas, joining All-Stars Jewell Loyd and Ezi Magbegor. Having taken part in the festivities before, participating in the Skills Challenge back in 2019 and now in her second third point contest overall, Whitcomb was looking to make the most out of her opportunity here during All-Star week in the form of a “break” from the current regular season that has been somewhat turbulent. She was able to get things going in round one and impress early, tallying 28 points in round one as she made 17 of her 27 shots. With those 28 points in the first round, Whitcomb tied Allie Quigley’s first round record, which is a fun feat given that Quigley is the greatest three-point contest competitor of all-time in the WNBA, considering her four victories in the event.
“Felt good. I was just trying to shoot them consistently, keep the pace so I could get to the end with enough time. Just trying to shoot the same way basically, but it’s tough because you don’t have too much time to watch the shots, it’s tough to get a sense of whether or not it’s gone in. Just keep shooting.”
New York Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu in the teams game against the Seattle Storm on July 2nd, 2023 (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Sabrina smashes her way to victory
While Whitcomb had a nice first round to qualify herself for the second round, after the performance that New York Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu put up, the Storm guard didn’t stand a chance. Ionescu put up a record-breaking performance, smashing the all-time mark in not only the WNBA of Quigley’s 30 (2022), but in the NBA by Steph Curry and Tyrese Haliburton (Curry in 2021 and Haliburton in 2023). Ionescu only missed out on three possible points, hitting 37 of 40. The former Oregon Duck hit all but two of her shots, setting an extremely hard bar for Whitcomb to have to meet to beat, let alone even tie. The barrage of three pointers by Ionescu at one point included 20 makes consecutively, and it was no surprise to see the sort of success tonight from her given that Sabrina sits at second in the WNBA in made threes and fourth in three-point percentage.
“I mean, you want to make them all anyways, you want to be really good and make as many as you can. Obviously when you know you can only miss one or two it changes the amount of pressure that you have when you do it, but incredible, she shot incredibly it was it was fun to be part of it.”
With the bar to reach basically set on the roof of the Michelob ULTRA arena, Whitcomb was still able to put up a respectable effort in round two and tally 22 points, which earned her second place in the competition. The Storm guard and University of Washington alum doubled the score of Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale, who only recorded 11 points in round two. Under normal circumstances where her opponent didn’t have a record-setting performance, Whitcomb likely puts up a strong result and could’ve challenged to be the winner of the event. But that wasn’t the case, and Whitcomb had to essentially play catchup to a mountain that was nearly impossible to climb.
“I think the first one was probably a little more nerve wracking, but this time a little bit of familiarity. You’re a little bit more comfortable. It was really fun both times.”
Storm players at WNBA All-Star weekend events history
Skills Challenge
Sue Bird, 2006 (Lost in round two)
Betty Lennox, 2007 (Didn’t make it to round two)
Swin Cash, 2009: (Lost in round two)
Sami Whitcomb, 2019 (Didn’t make it to round two)
Three-point contest
Sue Bird, 2008: 11 in round one, 12 in round two (Lost)
Sue Bird, 2017: 7 in round one, didn’t make it to round two
Jewell Loyd, 2018: 19 in round one, didn’t make it to round two
Jewell Loyd, 2021: 18 in round one, didn’t make it to round two
Jewell Loyd, 2022: 14 in round one, didn’t make it to round two
This is Sami Whitcomb’s second three-point contest, after participating last year as a member of the New York Liberty.
What’s next?
Following the conclusion of this year's WNBA three-point contest and the skills challenge before that, the WNBA All-Star game takes place tomorrow, Saturday, July 15th, with a tipoff time of 5:30PM PST. Taking place inside of the Michelob ULTRA arena in Las Vegas, home of the Aces, Storm players Ezi Magbegor and Jewell Loyd are set to be part of Team Breanna Stewart as they battle against Team A’ja Wilson. It will be interesting to see how much, if at all, Loyd plays considering the fact that she has been dealing with a foot injury over the past few weeks that even held her out of a game during this road trip and did suffer an ankle sprain in New York against the Liberty prior to that. With Magbegor making her first All-Star game, it’s likely that she’ll take in the full experience, even as a reserve.