Flau’jae Johnson watched her corner three-pointer, the proverbial knockout blow, splash through the net in the final seconds before turning to the fans and blowing a kiss.

She savored this moment while extending her arm and letting out a long sigh before racing down court to enjoy a rare win in front of 11,558 at Climate Pledge Arena.

“Go home,” the rookie guard said when asked what went through her mind during the celebration. “We won. We got one. I just love interacting with the crowd. That’s my thing, though. I (like to) blow kisses when I hit shots. That was it. It was a release, a relief kiss.”

Aside from a handful of botched layups and some shoddy ballhandling near the end, the Storm made all the right plays when it mattered most to hold off the Toronto Tempo and capture a 90-78 victory Wednesday night.

“It’s really important for us to kind of just take care of the ball, have really clean possessions,” coach Sonia Raman said while noting they committed just 11 turnovers. “I thought for the most part we did. … There were a couple (turnovers), and that’s good too, right? We have some learning opportunities. We have some film. We can clean some of those up.

“Playing with the lead down the stretch is something that we have to, you know, get more reps at and so I’m glad we were able to do that today.”

Johnson and Jade Melbourne, who struggled to convert a couple of relatively easy layups in the final minutes, combined for 36 points, nine assists and sank a couple of clutch acrobatic baskets near the end to seal the win, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

Their production compensated for guard Natisha Hiedeman, the Storm’s second-leading scorer and assists leader, who missed her third straight game due to a shoulder injury.

“Just really high-level sharing the ball and being intentional,” said Raman who applauded Seattle’s 25 assists on 35 field goals. “Everything that we worked on yesterday really carried over. The backcourt was really solid, but I thought everybody was kind of moving together. There was just more connectedness that we kind of hadn’t seen in the last couple games.”

Johnson led the Storm with 20 points on 9-for-15 shooting while Melbourne finished with 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists.

Dominique Malonga added 18 points, seven rebounds and three steals while Awa Fam and Zia Cooke each had 10 points.

Against the expansion Tempo team that played its first-ever game in Seattle, the Storm led 23-19 in the first quarter thanks to Melbourne who tallied nine points.

“I know our starts haven’t been good, and I’m the point guard that starts it off, so I knew like I wanted to come in on the front foot and be aggressive,” Melbourne said. “I wanted to win tonight simply, and so I think, you know, getting engaged early, getting downhill when there were gaps.”

Toronto used a 16-6 run to seize momentum early in the second quarter and go up 35-29 after a driving layup from standout rookie guard Kiki Rice.

The Storm regained control and Fam capped the first-half scoring with a corner three-pointer for a 43-42 lead at the break.

Late in the third quarter, Cooke thrilled the crowd with crossover dribble that rocked forward Ornella Bankole off balance before dropping a bounce pass to Stefanie Dolson for a layup and a 59-57 lead.

Cooke, who tallied a career-high five assists, continued to torment the Tempo with her playmaking ability and zipped a pass to Katie Lou Samuelson for a corner three-pointer early in the fourth for a 71-63 lead.

Minutes later, Melbourne dribbled to the rim and converted a difficult layup despite being bumped and falling on the court to go up 73-63 with 6:53 remaining.

The Storm have struggled in clutch situations — games in which the point differential is five points or fewer in the final five minutes — but they never let the Tempo get closer than seven points at the end.

Ahead 85-78 with 54.7 seconds left, Melbourne made one of two free throws before Johnson’s dagger three-pointer.

The injury-riddled had just nine healthy players and were without six players due to injuries, including All-Star guard and leading scorer Marina Mabrey (adductor) and former Storm guard Brittney Sykes (foot).

Rice scored a game-high 24 points, Isabelle Harrison had 17 points and 14 rebounds and Laura Juskaite added 14 points for Toronto, which has lost 14 of its last 15 games and fell to 11-27.

Without the reward of a postseason berth, Johnson believes there’s still plenty of motivation for the Storm (8-31), who are last in the WNBA standings.

“Let’s just keep getting better,” she said. “We know we’re not playing to go to the playoffs. It’s not no miracle playoff that we’re going to get into, but we know that we can get better. We know that we can either end the season and look at ourselves like ‘Wow, we didn’t get better at nothing.’ Or we can end the season and be like, ‘Look at this growth that we had. Look at the things that we overcame.’

“It’s important for us just (find out) who are you want to be as a player and as a person? Are you the type you’re going to lay down or are you going to make the most out of your situation? It’s just like life. Basketball is life. So, however you play basketball is how you live your life. I feel like I’m type person, I’m trying to get up and get it no matter what (and) no matter what the score is. So, we still got that still 0-0 mentality and we’re going continue to get better.”

The Storm host the Los Angeles Sparks (13-25) on Sunday, which is their last game before the WNBA’s two-week break for the FIBA World Cup.

Note

— Charlotte Malone from the Make-A-Wish Foundation served as an honorary Storm player Wednesday. She attended the morning shoot-around practice, walked into Climate Pledge Arena with Johnson and sat next to coach Raman during pregame interviews.

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