Natasha Howard racked up 28 points and 14 rebounds and Arike Ogunbowale added 18 points and 11 assists as the Dallas Wings rolled to a 107-67 win over the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday afternoon in Minneapolis for their third straight victory.
It was both teams’ final game before the All-Star break.
The Wings (11-9) led by 16 points at halftime and by 29 after a dominant third quarter on the way to their highest scoring output of the season and a season-best 31 assists. The 40-point winning margin was Dallas’ largest this year.
Dallas outscored the suddenly defense-challenged Lynx by at least seven points in every period, shot 51.9 percent from the floor for the game, forged a 43-28 edge on the glass and forced 15 Minnesota turnovers that it turned into 25 points.
Satou Sabally and Teaira McCowan each contributed 19 points for Dallas.
Napheesa Collier led the Lynx (9-11) with 11 points while Kayla McBride added 10. Minnesota has dropped two straight games in blowout fashion after a five-game winning streak.
The Wings trailed 9-8 early on before reeling off an 8-0 run capped by a layup by McCowan at the 3:54 mark of the first period. Dallas would eventually push its advantage to 23-12 after Howard had an offensive rebound and putback layup with 1:44 left, and it led 28-19 after 10 minutes of play.
Minnesota cut its deficit to four points on Lindsay Allen’s jumper with 6:04 to play in the second period before the Wings reasserted themselves, fashioning an 11-2 run to go up 43-30 on Awak Kuier’s layup with three minutes remaining in the half. Dallas led 50-34 at the break.
Howard led all scorers with 13 points in the half while Sabally had 10 for the Wings, who shot 52.5 percent before halftime. Collier’s eight points paced Minnesota.
–Field Level Media
