Paige Bueckers, Dallas’ WNBA rookie of the year candidate, scored 24 points to lead the Wings to a 97-76 victory over the playoff-bound Phoenix Mercury on Thursday in the regular-season finale for both teams in Arlington, Texas.
The Wings (10-34) snapped a 10-game losing streak and won for just the second time since July 29. Dallas trailed by 14 points in the first period before flipping the switch in the second and third quarters and building a 22-point lead heading into the final period.
The victory allowed the Wings, long eliminated from the postseason chase, to avoid posting their worst full season win total since the franchise moved from Tulsa, Okla., to North Texas for the 2016 campaign.
Amy Okonkwo added a career-high 20 points for Dallas while Aziaha James also scored 20 off the bench. Maddy Siegrist added 10 points and Myisha Hines-Allen grabbed 10 rebounds.
Satou Sabally’s 14 points led the Mercury while Kalani Brown contributed 12. None of their starters played more than 20 minutes.
Phoenix (27-17) had little to play for and it showed. The Mercury, who have dropped three straight games, are locked into the No. 4 seed in the WNBA playoffs and will play the fifth-seeded New York Liberty, the defending league champion, in a best-of-three first-round series beginning Sunday in Phoenix.
Both teams began the game with their available starters and the Mercury rushed out to an 8-2 lead after a free throw by Alyssa Thomas. Phoenix pushed its advantage to 14 points on Kahleah Copper’s 3-pointer at the 4:24 mark before the Wings finally got things going, reeling off a 21-7 run capped by Grace Berger’s jumper to pull to within 28-25 at the end of the first quarter.
Dallas made 30-30 on James’ 3-pointer with 7:14 to play in the second quarter and then took the lead at 38-37 when Okonkwo hit a 3-pointer with 4:37 remaining. Dallas built its lead to as many as a dozen points on Bueckers’ 3-pointer with 34.2 seconds to go and carried a 57-47 advantage into the break.
Bueckers led all scorers with 15 points before halftime while James added 14 and Okonkwo had 11 for the Wings. Sabally paced Phoenix with 11 points.
After outscoring the Mercury by 13 points in the second quarter, Dallas owned the third quarter by a 25-13 count to all but ice the game.
–Field Level Media
