{"id":684147,"date":"2026-06-04T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684147\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:48:11","slug":"the-wnbas-19-year-old-phenom-went-off-on-wednesday-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684147\/","title":{"rendered":"The WNBA\u2019s 19-year-old phenom went off on Wednesday night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seattle Storm center Awa Fam put together her best WNBA game yet in a Wednesday night 72-68 loss to the Phoenix Mercury<\/a>. Fam, who is the league\u2019s only teenager, tallied 18 points on 9-17 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. Fam played a career-high 33 minutes in the loss.<\/p>\n

Fam was selected third overall in April\u2019s WNBA draft and joined the Storm 6 games into the season after fulfilling overseas obligations. In five contests played, she\u2019s averaging 9.8 points and 5 rebounds, shooting 44.9% from the field. Wednesday was her first time eclipsing 10 points since she made her season debut on May 24th.<\/p>\n

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In Seattle, Fam joins a loaded frontcourt that includes 20-year-old, second-year standout Dominique Malonga<\/a> and 26-year-old Ezi Magbegor<\/a>. Malonga has been sidelined since May 13th with a concussion, while Magbegor has yet to make her season debut as she recovers from a right foot injury she suffered a month ago.<\/p>\n

In turn, Fam is getting an extensive opportunity, and she\u2019s made the most of it.<\/p>\n

Awa Fam is not the only rookie to excel in the early days<\/p>\n

Olivia Miles, who was selected second overall by the Minnesota Lynx<\/a>, has been the WNBA\u2019s most impactful rookie thus far. The former TCU standout is averaging 15.8 points and 6.3 assists per game, leading all rookies in both categories.<\/p>\n

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Azzi Fudd, who was selected second overall, is averaging 12.1 points while shooting 43.8% from three, and has played a significant role in the Wings\u2019 6-3 start to the season.<\/p>\n

And, UCLA standouts Gabriella Jaquez and Kiki Rice, who were selected fifth and second overall by the Chicago Sky<\/a> and Toronto Tempo<\/a>, respectively, have both been effective. Jaquez is averaging 11.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game, while Rice is averaging 12.7 points, 4,7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game.<\/p>\n

Fam may have been forgotten in the early days of the season since she was a late arrival to Seattle, but the 6\u20194 Spanish-Senegalese center has made her mark since arriving in the States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seattle Storm center Awa Fam put together her best WNBA game yet in a Wednesday night 72-68 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[161082,438,56300,4387,1077,5551,4676,99,85228,8253,434],"class_list":["post-684147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-awa-fam","tag-chicago-sky","tag-dominique-malonga","tag-ezi-magbegor","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-seattle-storm","tag-sports","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}