BRISTOL, Conn. — Those screeches you may not have heard Thursday night were the sounds of chalk in the WNBA lottery drawing and extreme delight from fans of the Seattle Storm.

With the results for the third time in the history of the system landing in a 1-2-3-4 order of odds that existed going in, the Storm for the second straight year claims the number one pick in next April’s draft and thus the likely option to choose one of the great prizes of talent in Connecticut senior Breanna Stewart.

WNBA president Laurel J. Richie was here at ESPN studio headquarters to announce the results of what the ping pong balls produced and she broke the news at halftime of the Western Conference finals playoff opener between the defending champion Phoenix Mercury and host Minnesota Lynx.

“We want to continue to lay out the vision of this rebuild, re-mode, that we’re in the middle of,” Seattle first-year coach Jenny Boucek said after representing the Storm delegation in the studio to learn the results.

“This obviously escalates our process,” she continued. “(Stewart) is kind of the future in terms of her versatility, coming from a program like UConn – a quarter of our team could possibly be UConn players.

“We like that. We’ve had good success with UConn players in the past. So if we go in that direction – we’re trying to put in a system that is becoming more and more position-less, so she’s a good fit there, if we decide to take her No. 1.”

The San Antonio Silver Stars get the second pick, the Connecticut Sun, losing a chance to gain another storied top-shelf Huskies star from nearby, will again go at No. 3, while the Atlanta Dream get the fourth pick.

Boucek, a former Virginia star guard who was an assistant to Brian Agler in 2014 before he moved to the Los Angeles Sparks in the offseason, said it was not likely Seattle would be dealing the pick, though she noted, “but you never say ‘no,’” about not willing to listen to an offer.

It’s the second time the Storm is going back-to-back with No. 1 selections, following the 2001 and 2002 haul that brought in Australian then-teenage sensation Lauren Jackson followed by Connecticut’s Sue Bird, who both became WNBA All-Timers.

Stewart, who has led the Huskies to three straight NCAA championships and earned most outstanding player in all three Women’s Final Fours, is expected to quickly gain that stature also after chasing all the women’s collegiate glory one more time.

The likely selection of the native of Syracuse will follow this past season when Seattle, in a rebuild mode, got extra lucky as Notre Dame junior Jewell Loyd used a loophole involving her birthdate to forego her senior year with the Irish.

She was just named rookie of the year after struggling at the outset of the season.

With the looming of Stewart being the star of next April’s draft joining such other notables in specific seasons as the 1-2-3 premium picks of Phoenix’s Brittany Griner, Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne, and Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins in 2013; Connecticut’s Maya Moore in 2011, the Huskies’ Tina Charles in 2010; Tennessee’s Candace Parker in 2008, and Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi in 2004, to name a few, the league changed the system last month in terms of how the odds back-to-front would be produced among the four non-playoff teams with the worst records.

Instead of just using this season’s records, which determined the four lottery teams, a combined two-season total including 2014 results, set up the order. Even with that adjustment to reduce potential tanking, the 1-2 slots were undetermined going into the final game of the regular season, and both San Antonio and Seattle met each other in the Emerald City.

The Stars won, thereby enabling Seattle to claim the best odds with 442 chances out of a 1000, but if the score had gone the other way the two teams would have had identical two-year records and San Antonio would have won the tie-breaker for best odds off of this season’s results.

“We had one second pick in my 11 years and that turned out to be Becky Hammon,” said San Antonio general-manager coach Dan Hughes of an acquisition that came from the New York Liberty in dealing that pick. We got the second pick, that’s a desirable pick, we’re going to have to do some work on that,” he said and explained the Stars organization had several collegians already in mind as potential choices without naming names.

“I try to have myself not thinking about `what ifs’,” Hughes said, adding that a No. 2 would still be a good player and a selection that perhaps could be dealt for a seasoned veteran further along in WNBA experience. Hughes laughed and answered in the negative as to whether he had talked to NBA 76ers coach Brett Brown, a former Spurs assistant who has been part of a tanking effort to build for the future.

Meanwhile, Connecticut Sun president Mitchell Etess, who was again at the podium to hear the results the third straight year, was philosophical over the lost chance at a marketing motherlode, considering Stewart’s potential that is likely to include a spot on next summer’s Olympic team after playing on the World Championship gold medalists in 2014 for USA Basketball and her UConn coach Geno Auriemma.

“I had a feeling we might get lucky and move up a spot or two since we were pretty unlucky during the year and turn around and things might go our way,” Etess talked about his pre-announcement thoughts. But as it turned out it was by the odds and that’s the way things turn out,” he continued. “The reality is we’re going to get a really good player at three and whoever we’re getting will be a really big asset for our team.”

Some names being tossed about as top choices behind Stewart are her UConn teammate Moriah Jefferson, South Carolina’s Tiffany Mitchell, and George Washington’s Jonquel Jones.

The way things go in the WNBA, you can bet on thing when Year 20 rolls around for the women’s pro league in 2016 – when the schedule is trotted out this winter for next summer along with the TV slate, look for Seattle to be one of the teams, perhaps even host teams, to play in the national TV opener.