The Indiana Fever ends the Dallas Wings’ three-game win streak, their longest of the season, to extend their own to four.
Dallas and Indiana are split in head-to-head so far this season, with the Wings losing most recently, 93-100.
“We’re going to build on this,” head coach Latricia Trammell said.
Now 9-23 on the season, Dallas is second-to-last, 11th in the standings, with just eight games left in the regular season to fight their way into the playoffs.
The top eight teams qualify for the WNBA Playoffs. The Wings still have games remaining against eighth place Chicago Sky, ninth place Atlanta Dream and tenth place Washington Mystics, giving them plenty more opportunities to work their way up the totem pole.
The Fever (17-16) are currently in 6th.
It was a back-and-forth contest for most of the game, with a first half that saw 13 lead changes, before the Wings could not quite close out. Dallas’ Satou Sabally said the team needed to play all 40 minutes, not just 37 of them.
“It’s the WNBA, we’re going to get punished if we don’t do that,” Sabally said.
Coming out of halftime, the Wings led by as many as 9 points with 5:33 left in the 3rd quarter, their biggest lead of the game.
Soon after, Ogunbowale was called for a foul—the Wings challenged it, and lost, leaving Ogunbowale with a technical foul. To follow, the Fever scored five-straight. An eight-point run for Indiana gave them a 99-91 lead with just 39 seconds left on the clock, was the dagger.
Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell led all scorers tonight with 36 points. Clark had 28 points and 12 assists, and NaLyssa Smith had 14 points and eight rebounds.
Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale finished the night with 34 points—she scored 24 points the last time the two faced off, scoring as many in the 1st half tonight, alone.
Sabally had 25 points and Natasha Howard had 18 points and nine assists.
These sides will face off one last time this season, at Indiana, on Sept. 15.
The Wings host the Mystics next; Tuesday’s tipoff is at 7 p.m. at College Park Center.
