CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The Charlotte Sting's final home game featured a power failure, which was entirely fitting.

The Sting again came up short, suffering a 76-67 loss to the Minnesota Lynx. They completed a 5-11 campaign at Charlotte Coliseum that featured a league-record nine-game losing streak dating to last season.

Charlotte entered this season as one of just two teams to make the playoffs in each of the WNBA's three seasons. But the Sting never got untracked and have stumbled to an 8-23 mark.

"I have been here since the organization started," Sting forward Andrea Stinson said. "I just want my team to do well. Everyone has things to do in the offseason to get better. We wanted to be in the playoffs."

"Anytime you have a season like this year, you want to jump back into it as soon as possible," Sting guard Dawn Staley said.

With 11:51 left in the first half, the game was delayed about 20 minutes due to a power outage. The building was struck by lightning, which temporarily knocked out the power.

Betty Lennox and Katie Smith had enough to power the Lynx (15-16), who have won two in a row following a three-game losing streak.

"All of our players have good attitudes and did not pack it in when we were eliminated from the postseason," Lynx coach Brian Agler said. "They still want to win their remaining games."

Lennox, the favorite for WNBA Rookie of the Year, scored 18 of her 27 points in the first half. Smith, who has set the league mark for 3-pointers with 86, scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half.

"At this point in time we are trying to finish up strong and play for next year," Lennox said. "We really pulled it together as a team in the second half."

The Lynx were clinging to a 67-66 lead after Angie Braziel made two free throws with 2:34 to play. On the next possession, Kate Paye made a 3-pointer as the Sting's Charlotte Smith shoved Katie Smith underneath.

The combination four-point play gave Minnesota a 71-66 lead and Charlotte scored just one point thereafter.

"The four-point play was huge for us," Smith said. "That was a big-time shot by Kate Paye."

Kristin Folkl scored 12 points and Paye added nine for the Lynx, who shot 48 percent (26-of-54) from the field and committed just nine turnovers.

Stinson scored 15 points and Braziel and Staley added 10 apiece for the Sting, who shot 42 percent (22-of-52) and committed 15 turnovers.