DALLAS — The Dallas Wings made franchise history on Sunday when three players all scored 20 or more points in the same game in the team’s 92-82 win against the Los Angeles Sparks. And being on the home court made the victory that much sweeter!
Guard Arike Ogunbowale, who sank five three-pointers, finished with a team-high of 27 points. She was joined in the 20+ showing by Marina Mabrey, who had 21, and Allisha Gray, who had 20.
Notably, Gray had her first double-double as she also nabbed 12 rebounds in the game.
Wings Head Coach Vickie Johnson credited her team’s transition game, ball movement and defense as factors in the win.
She also talked Gray’s performance, saying the guard was locked in.
“One thing I challenged her, and she challenged herself, she wanted to be All-Defense. I told her don’t give players so much respect. Guard everybody like you guard Jewell Lloyd and then you’ll see the difference. Jewell Lloyd, you have the utmost respect for, so now when you guard - and no disrespect to anyone - but when you are guarding Canada or Sykes, you put the same type of pressure on them and you’re going to get steals at half court and go down and score in transition,” Johnson said.
“You don’t fall back. You don’t bring your defensive effort down because of their style or the respect part of it. I was very happy for her, but she made it known that she needed one more rebound. 'Coach you got to put me back in, I need one more rebound,' so I said alright I got you.”
Not only did the Wings break a franchise record, the team made at least 10 threes for their third straight game and tallied 20 assists for the sixth time this season.
During the postgame interview, Johnson was asked about the Wings’ performance this year compared to last year.
She said, “I think the maturity level, being able to win on the road, and now being able to win two at home. Now we need to go back on the road and finish the month off at home. Defensively, I think they’re trusting more in our rotation. And offensively, we’re getting the opportunity to get downhill, making the right basketball play and I think that’s the biggest thing. And playing for forty minutes and not giving up, not settling. One thing I want to continue to say for me at the beginning, I’m not even going to lie to you, I thought we had already become a good team. We’re becoming a good team. We’re becoming what we can. We have stats - team, individual, game - we’re not there, but we’re becoming that. And once we become that, then that’s when we’re going to be very scary to deal with.”
The Wings, 8-8, have now won back-to-back games at home after losing four in a row.
The Wings remain in the third spot in the Western Conference.
The team will hit the road for their next match-up against the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday, June 21. Tip-off is at 6 p.m.
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