Tyler ButlerArlington, Texas- The Dallas Wings (8-9) run it back against the Chicago Sky (10-8) at College Park Center Friday night.
Wings veteran Isabelle Harrison enters Friday’s game after a career performance against Chicago Wednesday night. She netted a career-high tying 23 points to go along with a team-high eight rebounds and four steals. As a team, Dallas swiped 10 steals, the second time the Wings have reached double-digit steals this season. Dallas is currently fourth in the league with 7.5 steals per game.
Fellow veteran Allisha Gray also had a career night, as she passed the 1500 point mark for her career. She finished with 16 points and has now reached double-digits in three straight games.
That’s a lot of points…
Arike Ogunbowale led the WNBA in points per game at a clip of 22.8 points per game in the Wubble. Ogunbowale also became the third quickest player to reach 1,000 career points in WNBA history.
On Wednesday, June 30 vs Chicago, Ogunbowale became just the seventh player in WNBA history to score double-digits in 54 straight games.
Players that reached 1,000 career points the quickest
Cynthia Cooper 07/18/1998 45 games
Seimone Augustus 06/16/2007 46 games
Arike Ogunbowale 9/4/2020 51 games
Elena Delle Donne 06/20/2015 52 games
A’ja Wilson 08/20/2019 53 games
Tamika Catchings 07/26/2003 54 games
Breanna Stewart 07/25/2017 54 games
LONGEST ACTIVE DOUBLE DIGIT SCORING STREAKS:
Arike Ogunbowale 54 since 07/30/2019
A’ja Wilson 46 since 08/18/2019
LONGEST DOUBLE-DIGIT SCORING STREAKS IN WINGS HISTORY:
Arike Ogunbowale 54 07/30/2019 ACTIVE
Skylar Diggins-Smith 40 05/30/2017 06/19/2018
Dynamic Duos
Dallas’ roster this year consists of two sets of college teammates. Coincidentally, all of them won championships together during their collegiate careers. Ogunbowale and guard Marina Mabrey became the first college duo on the same WNBA team to both score 25 points in the same game.
Arike Ogunbowale/Marina Mabrey, Notre Dame, ’15-‘19
Allisha Gray/Tyasha Harris, South Carolina, ’16-‘17
Drafting Your Cake and Eating it Two
The Wings selected four players in the 2021 WNBA Draft, with three currently on the roster, and became the first team in WNBA history to pick both first and second, taking Charli Collier out of Texas with the number one overall pick and Awak Kuier out of Finland with the second. The Wings also took Chelsea Dungee (Arkansas) fifth overall.
Deja VJ
Dallas Wings Head Coach Vickie Johnson played in the inaugural WNBA Game in 1997 as a member of the New York Liberty against the Los Angeles Sparks, defeating them 67 – 57. 25 years later, Johnson, who took the first shot in New York Liberty history, got another shot, leading the Wings to down the Sparks, 94 – 71, the largest margin of victory in Dallas’s history to begin a season.
Don’t Skimp on the European Connection
Sabally and Kuier continue the rich tradition of European star power in the DFW Metroplex, where German native Dirk Nowitzki earned NBA MVP honors and a championship with the Mavericks, a team whose current roster boasts 2021 NBA All-Star Luka Dončić of Serbia.
Going For Gold
Satou Sabally and Allisha Gray missed a stretch of games in the first half of the season to play for Germany’s and USA’s 3-on-3 team qualifiers. Gray will be joined by other athletes during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the WNBA will have an Olympic Break starting on July 13 and lasting until after the conclusion of the Olympics in August. Gray and Team USA qualified for the 3-on-3 competition at the Olympics.
Everything’s Bigger in Texas
Dallas Wings center and first overall pick in the 2021 WNBA Draft out of the University of Texas, Charli Collier, recorded a double-double in her first career game at Los Angeles on May 14, netting 11 points to go along with 10 boards. Collier is just the 16th player in WNBA history to record a double-double in her debut and the first since A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces) did so in 2018.
Double Double-Doubles
On 5/22 versus Seattle, Isabelle Harrison and Kayla Thornton became the first Wings frontcourt duo to record a double-double in the same game since 2016 (Karima Christmas-Kelly, Glory Johnson). Harrison knocked down seven shots to give her 16 points along with 11 rebounds. Thornton poured in a season-high 14 points and collected a career-high 12 rebounds.
TOWERING IN THE FRONTCOURT
As a team, the Dallas Wings are second in the WNBA in rebounding, averaging 37.8 rebounds a game. They are also creating second-chance points on the offensive side of the ball as the team is second in the W averaging 10.4 offensive rebounds per game. The Wings also recorded more than 40 rebounds in five straight games from 6/1 to 6/11, the first time in franchise history the team has recorded 40 or more rebounds in five straight games during a single season.
Las Vegas Ace 38.8
Dallas Wings 37.8
Connecticut Sun 37.4
FREE POINTS…
After Coach Vickie Johnson expressed the importance of converting on free throws, the Wings are now third in the W in overall free throw percentage (84.0%), including going a perfect 17 of 17 from the charity stripe at Indiana 6/24 and 9 of 9 on 6/26 vs Washington.
…THREE POINTS
Dallas has relied heavily on shooting the ball from beyond the arc through the 2021 campaign. The team is currently fifth in three-point percentage (35.5) and third in attempted three pointers a game (24.0). The Wings also made 17 threes against Minnesota on 6/19, the most in franchise history and the most in a single game during the 2021 WNBA season. Arike Ogunbowale is second in the league with 45 made three pointers while Marina Mabrey is fourth with 37 made threes.
DALLAS DEPTH
The Wings are currently the third-highest scoring team in the league averaging 84.0 points per contest. The team is led by star guard Arike Ogunbowale, who ranks fourth in the W, with 20.4 points per game. Three other players on the roster are averaging at least 10 points as well (Marina Mabrey – 14.1, Satou Sabally – 12.8 and Allisha Gray 10.9).
Alise Robinson
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