Sparks Struggle Late

Los Angeles (July 12, 2018) – On a Thursday afternoon that saw the Los Angeles Sparks and Dallas Wings exchange the lead 10 times, the Wings took a 92-77 victory behind a 21-2 fourth quarter run.

Nneka Ogwumike scored the Sparks’ first two buckets in the post, but Dallas opened up a 9-4 lead courtesy of buckets from four of their five starters. With the Wings leading 15-9, Riquna Williams came off the bench to drain the Sparks’ first 3-pointer at the 3:23 mark. Two free throws from Candace Parker pulled the Sparks to within a point, but Skylar Diggins-Smith found Alisha Gray for her fourth assist of the first quarter to put the Wings ahead 17-14. An exchange of field goals and free throws sent Dallas into the second quarter with a 21-19 lead.

The Wings opened the second quarter with consecutive baskets from Kayla George and Azurá Stevens, but Chelsea Gray and Jantel Lavender responded with their first buckets of the afternoon to keep the deficit at four (27-23). With Dallas leading 31-25, Liz Cambage connected on two layups to extend the lead to 10, but Williams responded with back-to- back threes to pull the Sparks to within four at the 4:56 mark. After an exchange of three-point plays from Ariel Powers and Odyssey Sims, Ogwumike and Sims each sank two free throws to tie the game at 40 with 2:52 to play. With 2:09 left, Cambage scored in the post, but subsequently received a double technical and ejection for arguing with officials over a missed foul call. With the score tied at 47, Ogwumike executed a difficult post move to give LA the lead, and a Parker free throw sent the Sparks into the locker room with a 50-48 lead. Parker led all scores at the break with 17 points.

With Cambage out, Diggins-Smith got the Wings’ offense rolling in the third with a 3-pointer at the 7:11 mark, retaking a 53-52 lead for Dallas. After Ogwumike tied the game at the line, three straight baskets from Stevens gave the Wings a 61-57 advantage. Diggins-Smith started to really heat up, hitting back-to-back threes to extend Dallas’ lead to six with 2:52 left in the third. A Lavender long two would cut the Sparks’ deficit to 69-65 going into the final frame. Stevens matched her first half total with eight points in the third quarter.

The fourth quarter opened with five and four straight points for Williams and Glory Johnson, respectively, maintaining a three-point lead for the Wings. With 6:00 to play, the Wings surged to an 11-0 run, highlighted by a Diggins-Smith three- point play and two jumpers from Cayla George to give Dallas the 82-70 lead. Despite a steal-and-score from C. Gray, the Wings continued to pour it on, going on a 10-0 run to take a 20-point lead with 1:23 left. The game was all but over at this point, with the Wings going on to win 92-77.

Diggins-Smith had a monster game, recording 22 points and 11 assists. Parker led the Sparks with 21 points and seven rebounds. The Wings shot an even 50 percent (36-72) from the field, while the Sparks were held to a 27-62 (43.5 percent) clip.