Don’t let that 7-16 record fool you — the Dallas Wings are as plucky as ever.
It certainly helps when Arike Ogunbowale finds her rhythm from the perimeter, like she did in the Wings’ 87-63 stunner over the Seattle Storm (14-10) at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday. It also helps when the Dallas defense holds one of the best teams in the W to just 27 points in the second half.
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Ogunbowale led Dallas with 20 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range in the win, but the Wings got big contributions from all over the roster in the win. Luisa Geiselsoder provided enough offense with her 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from deep to float the Wings as the first half devolved into a rock fight in both teams’ first game since the WNBA All-Star break. Paige Bueckers (14 points, six assists) woke up in the third quarter after shooting just 1-of-5 in the first half. Hayley Jones came up big on the defensive end for three blocked shots, to go along with seven assists and six rebounds in the win as well.
Dallas sprinted out on a 16-4 run early in the third, a marked improvement from Dallas’ start to the game, when the Wings turned the ball over six times in their first seven possessions. Ogunbowale poured in eight points in the first three minutes of the third to give the Wings the offensive lift they needed to pull in front of the listless Seattle offense on the other end. Her pull-up 3-ball with 7:13 left in the frame gave Dallas its first double-digit lead, up 48-38 at the time.
Ogunbowale’s third 3-pointer of the third came a minute and a half later and put the Wings up 53-42. She scored or assisted on six of Dallas’ first eight field goals in the third quarter.
Then things got physical. Nneka Ogwumike appeared to throw Geiselsoder to the ground as Geiselsoder established position inside of Ogwumike for a defensive rebound with 3:28 left in the third, then got up from the fray, pointing and shouting in the direction of both Geiselsoder and the officials on her way back down the floor after the whistle.
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Ogwumike was called for a loose-ball foul on the play, and officials gave offsetting technical fouls to the pair of combatants for the tussle down low. Ogwumike led the Storm with 22 points on 10-of-19 shooting, but the Dallas defense had an answer for everything else the Storm threw at them.
The Wings outscored Seattle 25-14 over the next 10 minutes of game time to methodically pull away from the Storm, who are still a top-four team in the WNBA after the loss, thanks to the Atlanta Dream’s loss to the Aces on Tuesday. The Wings put the clamps on the Seattle offense all night long, allowing just 23-of-75 (30.7%) shooting from the field and 4-of-21 (19.0%) shooting from 3-point range in the win.
Dallas is just two wins shy of the team’s 2024 win total, with 20 games left on the schedule. Tuesday’s performance was Ogunbowale’s first 20-point game in nearly a month.
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