Skylar Diggins-Smith poured in 21 points and Jewell Loyd added 19 as the Seattle Storm rolled to a 92-84 win over the reeling Dallas Wings on Thursday in a Commissioner’s Cup game between Western Conference rivals in Arlington, Texas.
The Storm (9-4) led by eight points at halftime and by nine after three quarters. A cutting layup by Jordan Horston with 6:55 remaining stoked the Seattle advantage to 80-67, and the lead remained in double-digits until the Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale hit a second-chance 3-pointer and Jacy Sheldon had a layup to bring Dallas to within 88-81 with 2:14 to play.
But that’s as close as the Wings would get as Seattle got free throws from Nneka Ogwumike and Eli Magbegor and Dallas missed three shots down the stretch.
Seattle has won two straight and eight of its past nine games after a 1-3 start. Ogwumike added 17 points, and Horston and Magbegor had 10 points each in the victory. Magbegor pulled down 10 rebounds.
Ogunbowale led all scorers with 24 points. Teaira McCowan added 19 points and 10 rebounds, Maddy Siegrist hit for 16 points and Monique Billings had 10 for Dallas (3-8), which has dropped six straight contests.
The Wings led by five points in the early minutes after Ogunbowale’s 3-pointer gave Dallas an 11-6 advantage at the 6:49 mark of the first quarter. Seattle rallied to tie the game at 15 when Diggins-Smith hit a layup with 3:56 to play in the period that was part of a 10-4 Storm run that garnered them a 21-19 lead after 10 minutes of play.
Dallas leapfrogged to the front when Siegrist hit back-to-back layups to open the second period, but the lead was short-lived. The Storm responded and went up 30-25 when Diggins-Smith hit a 3-pointer at the 7:05 mark of the quarter and were ahead by six after Ogwumike’s layup with 5:23 to play until halftime.
The Wings pared their deficit to as few as three points on four separate occasions before Seattle finished the half with a 7-2 surge that landed them a 48-40 advantage at the break.
Loyd was the game’s high-scorer before halftime with 15 points, with Diggins-Smith hitting for 12 for Seattle. Siegrist led Dallas with 12 points in the half while Ogunbowale and McCowan added 10 points each for the Wings.
–Field Level Media
