Arike Ogunbowale racked up 30 points on the strength of long-range shooting and the Dallas Wings pulled away with a strong fourth quarter in a 95-75 victory against the host Connecticut Sun on Friday night at Uncasville, Conn.
Kalani Brown had 14 points off the bench, Teaira McCowan provided 14 points and 11 rebounds, Natasha Howard had 13 points and Crystal Dangerfield added 12 points for the Wings (17-14), who’ve defeated the Sun in back-to-back games. The teams split the four-game season series.
Dallas outscored the Sun 29-12 in the fourth quarter.
Ogunbowale made seven of nine attempts from 3-point range. The rest of the Dallas team was 1-for-10 on 3-point tries.
DeWanna Bonner’s 25 points and 12 rebounds and Alyssa Thomas’ 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists paced the Sun (21-10), who have their first three-game losing streak of the season — which has delayed in clinching a playoff berth. Tiffany Hayes added 13 points.
Connecticut’s offense bogged down. In a stretch of almost 12 minutes spanning the two halves, the Sun managed to tally only 11 points.
By then, the Wings had moved to a 54-45 lead. The Sun got going and were within 59-57 before the third quarter ended at 66-63.
Connecticut ended up 3-for-14 on 3-point attempts. Bonner did most of her damage from the line, converting on 12 of 13 free-throw tries.
Dallas surged ahead with a strong finish to the first half, leading 46-40 at the break. The Wings shot 50 percent from the field in the half.
Connecticut was hurt by 3-for-7 shooting on first-half free throws.
The Wings had an early three-minute scoring drought as Connecticut built a 13-5 lead. But McCowan had nine points in the opening quarter and Dallas was within 19-18 before the Sun posted the last basket of the quarter.
In order to have a 10th player available for the game, the Sun signed forward Kristine Anigwe to a seven-day contract earlier Friday. She didn’t play in the game.
–Field Level Media