ARLINGTON, TX — Without their resident supernova, the Dallas Wings (17-9) pulled out every trick in their bag against the New York Liberty (14-12), but ran out of gas in overtime and fell 99-98 at College Park Center. Arike Ogunbowale’s runner as time expired in overtime glanced off the rim after she had nailed an off-balance 3-pointer seconds before to give the Wings a chance at the end.
Paige Bueckers did not suffer a concussion in that fourth-quarter collision with Nneka Ogwumike on Sunday against
the Los Angeles Sparks, but she was still held out with what the team called soreness. At least one of her legs also appeared to absorb a lot of the contact on the play.
The Liberty took advantage of a Wings’ offense that was searching for its rhythm early in the first quarter on Monday, taking a 15-8 lead on Jonquel Jones’ 3-pointer near the top of the key five minutes into the game. But th Wings still have weapons on the roster. Awak Kuier and Arike Ogunbowale orchestrated the response and helped keep the Wings in it early on.
The Liberty took a 25-22 lead after one.
Maddy Siegrist came in late in the first and provided a spark for Dallas as well. She pump faked her defender and hit a jumper with just two seconds left in the quarter to bring the Wings within three, then nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing that Jones was slow to defend to tie the game, 27-27, just a minute and change into the frame.
Azzi Fudd gave the Wings their first lead of the game, 30-27, a minute later with her second 3-ball of the game, but it was short-lived. Breanna Stewart cashed in one of her own on the other end to put New York up 37-32, but Siegrist answered with her second on a ball reversal from Fudd to bring the Wings within a bucket with 5:46 left in the first half.
Dallas scraped and clawed throughout the first half to give themselves a chance, but on the Wings’ final possession of the second quarter, Kuier missed the free throw that could have completed a three-point play, then fouled Sabrina Ionescu on her way to the basket with one second left on the clock, giving her a three-point play on the other end. Dallas trailed 50-47 at the break.
Out of halftime
The Wings made a point of running screens to get Fudd and Ogunbowale open from the start of the second half. It worked on Dallas’ first possession of the half, when Fudd popped open along the right wing for her third of the game, which tied the game, 50-50. Then, when the Liberty overplayed Fudd and Ogunbowale, that left Odyssey Sims open near the top of the key with 7:45 left in the third for her first of the game, which put Dallas ahead 55-50 and forced Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco into a timeout.
Jessica Shepard skipped a beauty of a touch pass inside to Kuier with 6:30 left in the third to make it 57-51 Wings, and that brought the Wings’ run to start the third quarter to 10-1. Two free throws from Ogunbowale a minute later made it a 12-1 run. It was the first real breakthrough of the night, and the Wings’ defense is what kept it going.
The Wings forced 12 straight missed shots on the defensive end to start the second half and fuel what became a 14-1 run before Liberty guard Rebekah Gardner put one in from in close on a broken play with 3:09 left in the quarter. The Wings outscored the Liberty 18-3 in the first 8:16 out of halftime to build a 65-53 lead.
New York shot just 3-of-18 from the field and turned the ball over three times in the third against a much more active Wings defensive unit. As a result, Dallas took a 68-59 lead into the fourth.
Double-double watch
Jessica Shepard completed her 17th double-double of the season with a baseline jumper on a feed from Ogunbowale with 5:55 left to play. She had 10 points and 14 rebounds at that point, and finished the game with 13 and 16.
Shepard’s 17 double-doubles this year are tied for the most in the WNBA this year, with Angel Reese of the Atlanta Dream. She was, once again, the constant for the Wings, but this time, it wasn’t enough, as Stewart finished with a gargantuan 33 points and 13 rebounds for New York on the other end.
Fend them off, including the officials
Stewart was a problem early in the fourth for the Wings’ defense that held its own so well in the third. She hit a 3-pointer and then drove for a hooking score the next time down to cut Dallas’ lead to 70-64 with 7:55 left to play. Later in the quarter, as the Liberty turned up the defensive pressure themselves, backup guard Marine Fathoux got hot from outside, nailing a 3-ball that cut an 11-point Wings’ lead to 77-69, then another with 2:50 left to cut it even further, to 78-75, after Wings coach Jose Fernandez was called for a technical foul for arguing for a foul call a minute earlier.
Fernandez challenged a foul call on Ogunbowale with 2:29 left, sending Streward to the line, where she made one of two, to cut the lead to 78-76. But Jones got the offensive board for New York, and got it back to Stewart. She got fouled again, and went back to the line, this time tying it.
With the shot clock winding down for the Wings on the other end, Ogunbowale rose up for a 3-pointer about four feet beyond the line. It went down with two minutes remaining to give everyone in the arena a sigh of relief after a frantic stretch run and the Wings back an 81-78 lead.
With Dallas grasping onto an 81-80 lead and 18 seconds left on the clock Shepard was called for a questionable offensive foul as Stewart crowded her along the perimeter. The Liberty would get one more chance to take the game back. Kuier committed her sixth foul while defending Stewart on the other end with 12.9 seconds to play, and Stewart hit both of the ensuing free throws to put the Liberty up 82-81.
The Wings had already spent their challenge earlier in the fourth quarter, but the Liberty still had theirs, which would, predictably, come into play on the Wings’ final possession of the game. Ogunbowale drove past Fathoux with 8 seconds left and put up a shot in the lane that was challenged by Stewardt. Stewart was whistled for a foul on the arm.
DeMarco challenged the call and won. The ball was awarded to New York after the play, and you’d think that would have been the end of Dallas’ chances, right? Well, it wasn’t. Rebecca Allen made just one of two free throws on her trip to the line on the ensuing New York possession, giving Ogunbowale one last chance to streak down the court for a last desperate attempt. But she didn’t even need to put one up, because Fathoux fouled her near midcourt, with the Wings in the bonus, to send Ogunbowale to the line one last time in regulation. She made both ends, and Monday’s unhinged game went to overtime.
Overtime drama
After a quiet second half, Fudd connected on a jumper on the Wings’ first possession of overtime, but Li Yueru fouled Ionescu on her way to the bucket on the other end, giving the career sharpshooter a second three-point play the hard way to put New York in front, 86-85.
From there, Yueru and Ogunbowale both hit 3-pointers for the Wings, but Ionescu kept pouring buckets in on the other end for New York. She hit a different gear than the Wings had seen from her all night with her second of the overtime period, which gave the Liberty a 95-93 lead with 1:44 left.
Ionescu scored 12 of her 21 points in the five-minute overtime period to help the Liberty escape Arlington with their first win over the Wings in three tries this season.
