The Dallas Wings (18-11) were riding a stretch of seven wins in eight games going into the WNBA All-Star Break, but dropped their second in a row coming out of it on Friday, 81-75 to the Washington Mystics (16-12) at CareFirst Arena.
Shakira Austin scored 19 of her season-high 28 points against the Wings in the first half, and Kiki Iriafen added 22 more as Washington dominated Dallas in the paint in the win. The Mystics out-rebounded the Wings 55-38. Paige Bueckers led Dallas with 23 points in the loss,
Arike Ogunbowale added 20 more to extend her streak to seven games in a row of 17 or more points in the loss.
The Mystics’ zone defense was a problem early on, as Dallas missed nine straight shots in the middle of the first quarter before Paige Bueckers made her first field goal seven minutes into the frame. Shakira Austin’s strong drive through Li Yueru before that put Washington up 16-8 with 3:24 left in the first.
The Mystics led by as many as 10 in the first and took a 22-14 lead after one. The Mystics outscored the Wings 14-2 in the paint in the first.
Driving buckets by Arike Ogunbowale and Jessica Shepard pulled the Wings to within four to open the second quarter. Dallas made a push by pushing the pace to get within one, 24-23, on a leak-out hoop from Alanna Smith, forcing a timeout from Washington head coach Sydney Johnson with 6:38 left in the first half. Pushing the pace and getting out in transition was a huge part of how Dallas came into the game with a 7-2 record in July.
But the Mystics took control of the game right back, answering Dallas’ 9-2 run to open the quarter with a flurry of buckets going to the rack to extend their lead to 34-26 and force Wings’ head coach Jose Fernandez into a timeout of his own with 3:59 left in the second.
Shakira Austin led all scorers with 19 points, surpassing her season average of 15 points per game, at the half, and Washington took a 38-35 lead into halftime. The Mystics out-rebounded the Wings 25-17 in the first half after coming into the game leading the WNBA in rebounding as a team.
Dallas battled in the third quarter, but Austin was still feeling it. She nailed a fadeaway along the baseline over a double-team from Shepard and Smith to give the Mystics a 50-45 lead midway through the frame. Bueckers shook off a slow first half to score 12 in the third, but the Wings just couldn’t get their noses in front and trailed 59-55 going into the fourth.
More clutch drama
Bueckers scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter on a pull-up jumper from Shepard with 8:30 to play, setting the scene for another battle down the stretch. After Fudd’s second 3-ball of the game cut the Washington lead to 63-60 with just over six minutes left, Ogunbowale got tangled up with Mystics forward Cody McMahon after the play on the other end, resulting in a technical foul on McMahon. Ogunbowale split the ensuing pair of free throws, pulling Dallas to within two, then the next time down she hit her first shot of the second half, a 3-pointer from the left wing, to give Dallas its first lead since the first quarter, 64-63.
Ogunbowale forced the issue on a drive to the bucket the next time down to put Dallas in front 66-64 on the following possession, but Kiki Iriafen completed a three-point play on the other end to put Washington back in front. Then Fudd traded inside buckets with Iriafen as the lead see-sawed back and forth with 3:55 left to play.
With Dallas trailing 71-68 and 2:40 left to play, Iriafen picked up a foul and a technical foul on a drive by Smith. Bueckers and Smith hit all three freebies to tie the game, but Austin knocked in a pair on the other end to push Washington back in front on the other end. Ogunbowale and Shepard each blocked shots to preserve the tie with under two minutes to play, but Dallas gave Washington too many extra opportunities on the offensive boards all night long. It was always going to come back to haunt the Wings. The Mystics got four opportunities on the same possession with 1:21 left to play, and Austin finally earned another trip to the foul line for all her effort on the boards, putting Washington in front 75-73.
Citron stepped through Shepard’s defense inside after Ogunbowale missed a step-back 3-pointer and earned another trip to the line with 24 seconds to play to put Washington up by two possessions. Bueckers drove for a quick two with 19 ticks left, but all that did was delay the inevitable.
Paige vs. Sonia
Mystics star guard Sonia Citron got the better of Bueckers early in the first on a crossover move to the basket that led to a pair of free throws as Washington built an early lead on its home floor. Bueckers looked like she got past Citron midway through the first, but Citron recovered as Bueckers pulled up for a jumper for her first blocked shot of the game.
Bueckers was taken first overall by the Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft, of course, and Citron was taken by Washington just a pick later. They’ve become two of the brightest young stars in the league in year two, but in a game where the Mystics enjoyed such a pronounced advantage in the interior, the marquee matchup really didn’t factor into the game’s outcome. Bueckers and Citron scored just six points apiece in the first half.
That is, until the second half.
Citron saw a couple of easy buckets go down early in the third, then tipped away an entry pass to Yueru 4:22 into the third, which led to yet another bucket from Austin on the other end. And that’s when Bueckers started to heat up. She hit her first 3-pointer of the game from the right wing with 4:19 left in the third to bring the Wings within two points, down just 50-48. She hit another, this time from the right corner, just a minute and a half later to pull Dallas to within one, down just 52-51.
Citron finished with 16 points in the win, while Bueckers led Dallas with 23 in the loss.
Fudd’s DMV return
Fudd, who grew up in nearby Arlington, Va., nailed a 3-pointer from near the top of the key on Dallas’ first possession of the game to bail the Wings out of a tough situation late in the clock. But she missed her next seven shots and didn’t score for the rest of the first half, as the Mystics switched back and forth from their zone to a man-to-man defensive look to try to limit Fudd and Bueckers from the outside.
Fudd finally connected on her second 3-pointer of the game from the right corner with just over six minutes to play to pull the Wings within 63-60.
Fudd was the talk of the All-Star Break after becoming the first rookie to win the WNBA 3-point Shooting Contest, but couldn’t follow up her 20-point performance in Wednesday’s 82-81 loss to the Atlanta Dream on Friday back in her old stomping grounds. Fudd finished the night with eight points on 3-of-11 shooting.
Austin and Iriafen on the interior
Even after adding to the frontcourt coming into the 2026 season, the Wings just don’t have an answer for the bigger, more punishing teams in the WNBA this year.
Kiki Iriafen bullied Awak Kuier inside for a driving basket little more than two minutes into the game and earned a continuation foul on the play to put Washington up 7-6. Iriafen has been one of the league’s best Wings-killers the last couple of years but went to the bench a couple minutes later when she picked up her second foul.
Austin was unstoppable inside early on as well. She bullied Kuier on her way to the basket late in the first for a bucket that gave the Mystics their 22-14 lead at the end of the frame.
Iriafen held off the smaller Shepard inside for the Mystics’ first basket of the second quarter. Austin followed the play and received an interior pass from Michaela Onyenwere for an easy basket that put Washington up 26-23 with 6:20 left before halftime.
Austin was dominating the first half with 16 points, all in the paint, but popped open along the perimeter with less than two minutes left in the first half for her first 3-pointer of the ballgame, which gave the Mystics a 37-31 advantage.
Iriafen took an offensive rebound over Shepard’s outstretched arms on the Mystics’ first possession of the second half for a put-back bucket to set the tone out of halftime. The pair scored a combined 38 points and pulled down 16 boards through three quarters. They combined for an incredible 50 points and 19 boards in the win.
