Marina Mabrey had 22 points and Arike Ogunbowale added 20, and the Dallas bench was a huge factor as the Wings dismantled the visiting Minnesota Lynx 94-78 on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
The Wings trailed by two points at halftime but swept to the lead via a definitive run early in the third period and never looked back.
Dallas led by as many as 20 points after a 3-pointer by Mabrey with 3:12 to play and waltzed to the finish line to win its first game at home this season and second straight overall.
The Wings outscored Minnesota 51-33 in the second half.
Kayla Thornton added 12 points for Dallas while Satou Sabally had 11 off the bench. The Wings’ reserves outscored the Minnesota bench players 27-12.
All five Lynx starters scored in double figures, led by 14 points each from Jessica Shepard, Sylvia Fowles and Kayla McBride. Aerial Powers and Moriah Jefferson added 12 each for Minnesota.
Minnesota led 27-22 after a back-and-forth first quarter that had five changes and four ties. Fowles paced all scorers with eight points in the quarter while Sabally led Dallas with seven points off the bench.
The Lynx pushed their lead to as many as eight points in the early moments of the second quarter before Dallas rallied to tie the game at 37-37 on Sabally’s putback at the 4:12 mark of the period. Ogunbowale’s bucket with 2 seconds remaining in the half allowed the Wings to pull within 45-43 at the break.
Ogunbowale and Sabally led the Wings with 11 points each in the half while Powers and Fowles had 10 points each for Minnesota.
The Wings reeled off a 12-2 run over the first half of the third quarter that was capped by Thornton’s layup off a Mabrey assist at the 6:28 mark.
Dallas expanded its lead to 75-57 on Ogunbowale’s 3-pointer with 2:40 to play in the period and eventually led by as many as 16 points before Minnesota clawed back to 79-64 at the end of the quarter.
–Field Level Media
