Arike Ogunbowale contributed 32 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals and the Dallas Wings never trailed while posting a 92-87 victory over the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday night in Minneapolis.
Allisha Gray scored 17 points to help Dallas (11-13) win for just the third time in the past eight games. Kayla Thornton tallied 11 points and Isabelle Harrison had 10 for the Wings.
Rachel Banham scored 24 points and Sylvia Fowles recorded 20 points and 17 rebounds for Minnesota (9-16), which had a three-game winning streak halted. Aerial Powers added 11 points for the Lynx.
Banham scored 16 points in the final quarter, including hitting a high-arching 3-pointer with 23.2 seconds left to pull Minnesota within three.
Gray hit two free throws to give Dallas a 90-85 lead with 17.6 seconds to go before Banham drove for a layup with 10.4 seconds left. Minnesota failed to foul and when it finally did, Ogunbowale sank two free throws with 1.3 seconds left to seal it for the Wings.
Dallas made 47.8 percent of its shots, including 7 of 20 3-point attempts. Ogunbowale hit 4 of 9 from long range.
The Lynx shot 42.9 percent from the field and were 6 of 15 from 3-point range. Banham made 4 of 6 from behind the arc.
Dallas saw a 21-point halftime lead evaporate into a 62-57 edge entering the final quarter. But the Wings came out hot in the fourth by scoring eight straight points, the last two by Tyasha Harris to push their lead to 13.
Minnesota moved within nine on Fowles’ basket with 7:26 left before the Wings ran off six straight to make it 76-61 on Marina Mabrey’s basket with 4:41 left.
Dallas led 81-68 after Ogunbowale’s basket with 2:21 left but Banham buried a 3-pointer and Powers scored on a putback to bring the Lynx within 81-73 with 1:56 remaining.
Dallas led 48-27 at halftime behind 19 points from Ogunbowale.
Minnesota was just 7-of-29 shooting (24.1 percent) in the first half. Fowles made 3 of 5 shots; the rest of the Lynx were 4 of 24.
However, Minnesota came out strong in the third quarter and scored 15 of the first 18 points to move within nine. The Lynx scored more points in the stanza (30) than the entire first half.
–Field Level Media
