Twenty-six points clear before the break
Dallas put Connecticut away inside ten minutes and never loosened the grip. The Wings won 97-71 in Arlington overnight, closing out the final WNBA game before the two-week FIBA Women’s World Cup break.
Arike Ogunbowale scored 18. Jessica Shepard posted 17 points and 10 rebounds. Paige Bueckers added 15, all of them before halftime, and Maddy Siegrist came off the bench for 11. Four Dallas players reached double figures and none of them had to carry the night alone.
The opening quarter settled the tone. Siegrist hit a turnaround fadeaway with 54 seconds left, Alysha Clark buried a 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds on the clock, and the Wings walked away with a 32-18 lead after ten minutes.
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A third quarter that ended the argument
Connecticut trimmed the gap to 49-41 on an Aaliyah Edwards jumper with 2:34 to play in the second quarter. Dallas answered with an 11-6 run to close the half and carried a 60-47 cushion to the locker room.
The Wings then outscored the Sun 23-12 after the interval to move 83-59 ahead. The fourth quarter served no purpose. Connecticut never mounted a run at the deficit.
Edwards finished with 26 points to lead all scorers, tying her career high, and Charlisse Leger-Walker chipped in 17. The Sun drop to 10-30, a fifth loss in six outings, and will miss the playoffs in their final season in Connecticut. Dallas swept all three meetings between the teams this year.
Sixth place with four games to play
The result was a fourth straight win for Dallas and lifted the Wings to 24-16, level with the New York Liberty and the Washington Mystics in sixth place with four games left on the schedule.
The playoff berth was already banked, the franchise’s first since 2023. Win number 24 also set a club record for a single season since the team relocated to Dallas ahead of the 2016 campaign, following earlier spells in Detroit and Tulsa.
Two weeks of international basketball follow. Seeding is the only thing left for the Wings to play for when they come back.
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