Wings Lose to Mercury, 83 - 72
June 25, 2022 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Dallas Wings News Release
Arlington, Texas - The Dallas Wings (9-10) lost to the Phoenix Mercury (7-12), 83 - 72, at College Park Center, Saturday night.
Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale netted a team-high 25 points, her eleventh game this season with 20 or more points, and dished out six assists. Forward Isabelle Harrison joined her in double-figures, scoring 15 of her own and leading the team with 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.
Dallas hits the road for one game against the Minnesota Lynx (5-13) on Tuesday, June 28, at 7:00 p.m. CT.
Zoom Recording: Dallas Wings Postgame (Head Coach Vickie Johnson, forward Isabelle Harrison, guard Arike Ogunbowale):
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/7EHwa-Yth4ekSBtzMc6UnKh4VBVjgp0JW6eZlZeO4tX1V1PMqI8iK5bnvcRbWULl.ByfIgdmTWxjP3DlW
Notables:
Guard Arike Ogunbowale netted a team-high 25 points, her sixth straight game in double-figures.
The Wings grabbed 38 rebounds as a team, the team's seventh-straight game with 30 or more boards.
Isabelle Harrison netted 11 first half points and finished with 15. Harrison also added a team-high 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season.
Dallas dished out 21 assists as a team.
The Wings have made at least 10 free throws in all but one game this season, including sinking 10 tonight.
DALLAS WINGS HEAD COACH, VICKIE JOHNSON (SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2022)
On the team's free throw shooting tonight
"We worked on free throws today in shootaround and the importance of making our free throws. The importance of valuing the basketball as well. We had 15 turnovers, so like I say we're becoming. We're not there yet. We don't know how to close, don't know how to play with a focus and a discipline for 40 minutes and it's unfortunate because this is a game we should've won. Not taking anything away from Phoenix or their players - Sky [Diggins-Smith] and Diana [Taurasi] are on the Olympic team, they've won gold medals, they're All-Stars. Diana's probably going to be in the Hall of Fame, I thought we did a decent job on them, but we can't allow Sophie Cunningham and Diamond DeShields to come in and first of all play the four the whole 40 minutes versus our fours and we're shooting fadeaway jump shots versus guards. We can't do that. And second, we can't allow them to score 30 together. They had 30 together. Diamond didn't shoot a jump shot direct line drives to the basket. Cunningham did what she does, knock down threes. And so, that's the focus and the discipline I'm talking about. Knowing personnel, preventing them from doing certain things and then on the free throw line. We have to make our free throws. We're 10 for 21 from the free throw line, 47 percent. Also, we shot too many threes, especially because we weren't making threes. One thing I was preaching is that we're running sets, but we want to play inside-outside, live by the three, die by the three. We don't need to do that because inside we have the advantage. They didn't have shot blockers. And we should've took advantage of Diamond DeShields on the post or Sophie playing the post against our fours. Instead, we took jump shots, we took threes, quick threes that led to transition. And they're a little older than we are, and not knocking Diana or whatever and Sky, but they had 16 in transition to our eight. How is that possible? Effort. The things we could control effort-wise are free throws, we could move our feet. Also transition, those are things we can control, and we didn't do that tonight."
On potentially needing a veteran presence on the court
"I'm sure the right vet would help but if you could tell me a vet that we could get, I'm open to it. I think we have won enough games to not put it on the vet. It's about us as individuals, making the right basketball play, period. You have two people on you , throw it inside. Take your time, make your three or get in the lane, draw and kick. That's what we preach every day and also taking pride in stepping up to the free throw line and making your free throws because you can't look at it like 'oh well I only missed one or two free throws'. If you take that mentality to each person, now we've missed 11 free throws. You have to take the mentality that 'she just missed our free throws, I got you, I'm going to pick you up, I'm going to make my free throws because I don't want it to come down to a free throw'. We only lose by 11, we miss 11 free throws. We're not even talking about fast break and free throws for them. They had 35 in just those two areas. And then Sophie and Diamond had 30 together. Things that we can control, and 15 turnovers doesn't help."
On her thought process for the starting lineup
"I wanted 'KT' [Kayla Thornton] on Taurasi. I wanted her to be aggressive. I'm not going to lie to you, I was going back and forth between 'K' [Awak Kuier] and 'Big T' [Teaira McCowan] for the starting lineup because I knew they're fresh. Diana and Sky when they're fresh, they're rhythm players. So if they get a couple shots off, it's hard to stop them. I knew they would go at 'Big T', so I was going back between 'Big T' and 'K' to start the game. But we went with 'Big T', hoping that we could wear them down on the inside. They could attack us on the outside. We can attack them on the inside, but unfortunately, we didn't do that tonight."
On missing Allisha Gray tonight out with an injury
"It's hard. She's our leading player with the most minutes and her consistency defensively and offensively was huge. We missed that a lot today because she's the person that takes the responsibility of Diana Taurasi. And now you have KT on Sophie [Cunningham] versus the other way around. It made us come out with a different defensive game plan. I'm excited to get her back in Minnesota hopefully."
On the many fouls called on both ends tonight
"At the end of the day, the referees call what they say. If it's a foul, it's a foul. The only difference between them and us is that they made 19 free throws and we made ten. I can't say the flow of the game. If it's a foul and the referees call it a foul, so be it. Now we step up to the free throw line and make our free throw lines, which we didn't do tonight."
Women's National Basketball Association Stories from June 25, 2022
- Wings Lose to Mercury, 83 - 72 - Dallas Wings
- Connecticut Sun Injury Report - Connecticut Sun
- House Passes Stanton's Bipartisan Resolution Pushing for Brittney Griner's Release - Phoenix Mercury
- Mercury, Charles Agree to Contract Divorce - Phoenix Mercury
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