ARLINGTON, TX — The sellout crowd crammed into the College Park Center to catch a glimpse of Azzi Fudd’s home debut in a Wings’ uniform on Tuesday had to settle for a version of the team that really could have used the rookie’s touch from the outside against the Atlanta Dream (2-0). The Wings (1-1) shot an anemic 4-of-26 from 3-point range, which cut their comeback attempt down as Allisha Gray led all scorers with 26 points in the 77-72 win at Dallas.
Arike Ogunbowale led the Wings with 20 points
and four rebounds in the loss, her second straight game of 20 or more points to start the 2026 season.
Fudd was held out of the game “out of an abundance of caution,” according to first-year head coach Jose Fernandez, with a right knee issue. Yea, that’s the same knee on which she’s already had two major knee surgeries. Fudd was listed as probable to play against the Dream just 24 hours prior to being downgraded to out.
Here’s the Wings’ PR account being either very helpful, very facetious or very sensitive — choose your own adventure — in response to the torrent of unhinged online commentary that followed the announcement.
Thanks for explaining percentages that are less than 100 to everyone, guys.
Aziaha James, who Fernandez said would play more minutes with Fudd out, came in off the bench midway through the first quarter and immediately sought the bucket with vigor. She scored a team-high six points in the first quarter, and Odyssey Sims, who scored 20 points in Saturday’s 107-104 win at the Indiana Fever to open the season, scored a tough driving bucket with just seconds left in the frame to put the Wings up 21-19 after one. James did not score again the rest of the way, shooting 2-of-10 from the field in the loss.
“We got a lot of good shots,” Ogunbowale said. “But they used their length and their speed. We let them stop our frst action a lot of times and then were a little stagnant after that.”
Sims and Awak Kuier each hit 3-pointers near the end of the shot clock to start the second quarter, helping Dallas extend its lead to 29-21 with 6:30 left in the first half. The game against Atlanta took on an entirely different personality than the furious, up-and-down opener on Saturday. Bueckers came back in midway through the second and immediately raised up for her first 3-ball of the game to keep the Wings in front, 32-27, then started a break that finished with a Jessica Shepard touch-pass assist to Alanna Smith to make it 34-27.
The Wings survived a late flurry from the Dream’s dynamic backcourt duo of Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard and took a 41-38 lead into the halftime break. Gray hit a driving attempt and another 3-pointer early in the third to swing Atlanta back in front, 45-43. Then, Angel Reese scored a tough bucket over Jessica Shepard a minute later and gave the “to small” gesture to the Dream bench, before intercepting a bad pass from Shepard on the other end. As the Wings crowd gave Reese the business from the stands, her swagger and toughness on the interior helped the Dream swing the momentum of the game in their favor in the third. All of a sudden, Dallas trailed 49-43 as the tightly contested game turned into a genuine slugfest.
And every time the Wings needed a big bucket in the third, Arike Ogunbowale provided it. She scored on two drives where she absorbed contact and finished off the three-point play at the foul line and knocked down a pull-up jumper along the way to keep Dallas connected. Paige Bueckers, who was hounded by Howard and Gray all night on the defensive end, pulled up near the stripe for her first bucket of the third with 1:33 left, to bring the Wings back to within 57-55. Dallas led 59-58 after three.
“You’re up one going into the fourth, you’ve got to close those games out,” Fernandez said.
Gray dropped a couple more bombs to start the fourth quarter, including one from 32 feet away, to give her 22 points on 4-of-7 shooting from deep and put the Dream up 64-59 with 8:35 left to play. On the other end, the Wings shot just 3-of-19 from 3-point range through the first three quarters, three days after canning 12-of-23 from distance at the Fever.
“You hold them to 37% [from 3-point range],” Fernandez said. “But those two that Allisha hit were huge.”
Without the requisite shooting, there would be no comeback. Bueckers finished with 15 points on two made 3-pointers, one of which came with just five points left on the clock in the fourth, bringing the final score to 77-72.
