ARLINGTON, TX — The Dallas Wings (24-16) made it four wins in a row on Sunday with their 97-71 win over the Connecticut Sun (10-30) at College Park Center. The win gives the Wings the season sweep over the Sun and moves Dallas into a three-way tie with the Washington Mystics and the New York Liberty for the final three playoff spots as the WNBA breaks for FIBA World Cup play. The Mystics own the head-to-head tiebreaker with Dallas, but the Wings own their head-to-head tiebreaker against the Liberty. All that will get sorted in the final four games of the season — the Wings will be back in action on Sept. 17 against the Los Angeles Sparks.
“Where we end up seeding-wise?” Wings head coach Jose Fernandez mused in his postgame comments. “We’re just playing to win out. You can only do that by your next game becoming the most important game on the schedule.”
Dallas got off to something of a frantic start in the first against the Sun, then got busy breaking Connecticut’s defensive will. Dallas clearly held the advantage inside with the starting lineup featuring Awak Kuier, Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard, but the Sun answered the Wings’ advantage inside with 4-of-6 shooting from the perimeter from Aaliyah Edwards and Saniya Rivers to start the game. Paige Bueckers’ backdoor cut past Nell Angloma led to an easy bucket on a nice find from Shepard with 5:21 left in the quarter. Then Arike Ogunbowale drove through two Sun defenders the next trip down and completed a three-point play to put Dallas ahead 15-11.
Bueckers got to the rack again, this time past Charlisse Leger-Walker, with 3:24 left in the first to push the lead to 17-14. Kuier did the same the next time down, shedding her defender on her way to the bucket to make it 19-14, and Shepard followed suit with 2:45 left in the first. She drove right through the bigger Raegan Beers for a three-point play of her own to make it 22-14.
When Alysha Clark came off the bench and nailed her first 3-pointer with two minutes left in the frame, Dallas led 25-16, then Shepard went right back to the rim, this time through Ashlon Jackson, for another inside score that gave her seven points in the frame. Maddy Siegrist scored on her first shot attempt, a fading post move over Beers with 50 seconds left in the quarter to make it 29-18.
Clark nailed another 3-ball with just seconds left on the first-quarter clock to give the Wings a 32-18 cushion at the end of one.
Bueckers continued her efficient stretch from the field through the second quarter, shooting 6-of-10 from the field for 15 points and four assists in the first half to lead the Wings to a 60-47 lead at the break. Ogunbowale had 12 more, and Shepard had 12 points and six rebounds. Edwards led all scorers with 21 at halftime. She scored 16 of those 21 in the second quarter, effectively reversing on her own the advantage the Wings held on the low blocks in the first.
Bueckers found Ogunbowale up ahead on the break on the Wings’ first possession of the second half. Ogunbowale hit her first and second 3-pointers of the game in the first three minutes of the third quarter to extend what was a 13-point halftime lead to 17 in a hurry.
One glaring weakness
The only thing the Wings weren’t doing well was defending the interior. Smith, in particular, had a hard time defending Edwards, who scored inside once again for Connecticut’s first bucket of the second half. Smith picked up her fourth foul of the game with 6:30 left in the third on one of Diamond Miller’s many aggressive drives to the cup.
But at that point, the Wings were up 19, as they had no problem scoring going to the bucket on the other end, either. Smith and Kuier need to be able to defend inside without fouling and finish more plays with defensive rebounds if Dallas wants to avoid getting swept out of the first round of the WNBA playoffs, which start Sunday Sept. 27.
“We scored 60 points [in the first half], but defensively we weren’t playing to our standard,” Fernandez said. “That needed to change, and I think it changed in the second half.”
Down the stretch
Aziaha James came in and sparked a back-breaking 14-4 run in the final minutes of the third quarter. She battled for an offensive board on a missed Jessica Shepard free throw, which led to a bucket inside for Siegrist, then nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing with 1:58 left in the frame to put the Wings up 78-57. Her pull-up in the lane with less than a minute left in the third gave the Wings the 83-59 advantage they took into the fourth.
“She was so athletic on that play,” Bueckers said of James’ offensive board. “I was like, ‘I wish I could do that.’”
James scored seven of her nine points in her six third-quarter minutes as the Wings put the game out of reach entering the fourth. Dallas extended the lead to 30 points midway through the fourth, and the reserves brought home the Wings’ fourth straight win with four to play.
“It felt good being back on the court. My team’s been behind me as I’ve been in treatment,” James said. “So coming in and doing what I did — it felt really good. It’s playoff time. We’ve got to play like we’re in the playoffs now so we can get ready for it.”
Sunday’s win was James’ first game back after injuring her foot on Aug. 12 against the Toronto Tempo and missing the team’s last five.
Ogunbowale led the Wings with 18 in the win, while Shepard finished with 17 and 10. Bueckers had 15 and six, as none of the starters played more than 26 minutes. The Wings held Edwards to just five of her game-high 26 points in the second half.
With her three blocked shots, Kuier now owns the Wings’ franchise record for single-season blocked shots (57). Fernandez and Bueckers will join Team USA in Berlin for the World Cup, while Li Yueru will represent Team China, and Smith will play for the Australian national team.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” Fernandez said. “Any time you’re able to represent your country and play against the best of the best in the world, it’s an incredible honor. Really excited to be a part of USA Basketball and serve on Kara’s staff. You talk about the World Cup — I think it’s the toughest tournament to win. It’s the shortest amount of time that our national team gets to practice. A lot of national teams have already been together for a couple of months. We arrive, and everyone that we’re taking over there has played 40 games. Everything will move pretty quickly.”
Soon-to-be in-state rivals
Sunday’s blowout was the final meeting of the Wings and the Connecticut Sun, as the franchise will rebrand to the Houston Comets next season. The original Comets franchise built the first WNBA dynasty behind Cynthia, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson, winning the first four WNBA titles in the 1997-2000 seasons. The Comets franchise folded in 2008 after an ownership change and financial struggles.
The current Sun franchise originated in 1999 as the WNBA expansion Orlando Miracle. The franchise was sold to Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for a then-record $300 million on March 27. The NBA and WNBA boards officially approved the deal on May 13.
