Auburn In The WNBA: Conference Finals Recap - AuburnTigers.com - Auburn University Official Athletic Site

Auburn In The WNBA: Conference Finals Recap Le'Coe Willingham, Storm advance to WNBA Finals

Sept. 11, 2010

AUBURN - Former Tiger Le'coe Willingham and the Seattle Storm cruised to its first appearance in the WNBA Finals since 2004 by recording sweeps in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Seattle will take on the Atlanta Dream, who is also undefeated in the playoffs, in the finals.

After sweeping the Los Angeles Sparks in the first round, the Storm won the Western Conference Finals with a 2-0 sweep over DeWanna Bonner and the defending-champion Phoenix Mercury. Seattle took the opener, 82-74, in Seattle before closing out the series with a 91-88 win on the road.

Willingham averaged 6.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in the series. The Augusta, Ga., native's best performance of the playoffs so far came in game one when the former Tiger standout tallied 10 points and six rebounds.

In the series, Bonner, a Birmingham native, averaged 6.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game for the Mercury.

Seattle won both games against Atlanta in the regular season, winning by an average of 14.0 points per game. Willingham averaged 4.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the two victories.

Game one of the best-of-five WNBA Finals will be in Seattle at 2 p.m. CT, Sunday. Game two will also be in Seattle 8 p.m. CT, Tuesday. The series will then move east for the next two games with game three on Thursday and game four, if necessary, on Sunday. The decisive game five would be back in Seattle at 8 p.m. CT on Sept. 21. Game One will be televised by ABC while the rest of the series can be seen on ESPN2.