Press Release- Wings Return Home to Take On Mystics

Arlington, Texas- The Dallas Wings (7-8) take on the Washington Mystics (7-7) Saturday, June 26 at College Park Center.

The matchup will feature two of the league’s five highest scoring players and teams. The Wings rank third in points per game (84.5) and are led by Arike Ogunbowale, who is averaging 19.6 points per game. The Mystics are fifth best at 83 points per game and are led by the W’s leading scorer Tina Charles, who is averaging 25.3 points per game.

Dallas also currently leads the league in bench scoring, as the Wings reserves are averaging 30.1 points per game. The bench is led by All-Star candidate and Most Improved Player frontrunner Marina Mabrey, who is currently averaging 15.3 points per game and is tied for the second most three pointers made with 36.

That’s a lot of points…

Arike Ogunbowale led the WNBA in points per game at a clip of 21.3 points per game in the Wubble. Ogunbowale also became the third quickest player to reach 1,000 career points in WNBA history.

On Saturday, June 19 vs Minnesota, Ogunbowale became just the ninth player in WNBA history to score double-digits in 50 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          52          since 07/30/2019

A’ja Wilson                       43          since 08/18/2019

LONGEST DOUBLE-DIGIT SCORING STREAKS IN WINGS HISTORY:

Arike Ogunbowale          52         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. Both players will be joined by other athletes during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. 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 and Sabally will have another chance for gold by playing for Team Germany in 5-on-5 competition.

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 lead the WNBA in rebounding, averaging 37.7 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 10.5 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.

Dallas Wings                      37.7

Las Vegas Aces                   37.5

Chicago Sky                        36.8

FREE POINTS…

After Coach Vickie Johnson recently expressed the importance of converting on free throws, the Wings are now 4th in the W in overall free throw percentage (83.6%), including going a perfect 17 of 17 from the charity stripe at Indiana 6/24.

…THREE POINTS

Dallas has relied heavily on shooting the ball from beyond the arc through the 2021 campaign. The team is currently  second in three-point percentage (36.4) and third in attempted three pointers a game (23.6). 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 currently leads the league with 38 made three pointers while Marina Mabrey is tied for second with 36 made threes.

DALLAS DEPTH

The Wings are currently the third-highest scoring team in the league averaging 84.5 points per contest. The team is led by star guard Arike Ogunbowale, who ranks fifth in the W, with 19.6 points per game. Three other players on the roster are averaging at least 10 points as well (Marina Mabrey – 15.3, Satou Sabally – 13.3 and Allisha Gray 10.1). The Wings had six players in double figures for the first time in 2021 and the first time since June 30, 2019, versus Minnesota. The Wings had three starters (Ogunbowale, Collier and Sabally) in addition to three bench players (Mabrey, Harrison and Gray) reach the 10 point plateau.