The Los Angeles Sparks seek their second victory over the visiting Dallas Wings in a little over a week on Friday before the teams meet again on Sunday.
The Sparks (5-7) knocked off the host Wings 79-61 on June 14, but they haven’t won since — dropping three in a row following a 67-61 loss to the visiting Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday.
The Wings (6-6) are coming off an 85-73 win against the visiting Atlanta Dream on Tuesday to end a three-game losing streak.
Natasha Howard led the Wings with 23 points. Arike Ogunbowale added 21 points and three assists before being ejected with 1:42 left in the fourth quarter after receiving two technical fouls while on the bench.
Kalani Brown had a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 14 rebounds off the bench, with Teaira McCowan finishing with nine points and 11 rebounds. Satou Sabally chipped in 10 points while the teams combined for a WNBA regular-season record 10 technical fouls.
“I just feel like all around, from top to bottom, coaches, refs, I don’t know, everybody just needs to be able to control their emotions,” Ogunbowale said. “Everybody’s going to be emotional in the game.”
Meanwhile, the Sparks fell apart in the final minutes against the Lynx. After Rae Burrell pulled Los Angeles to within 62-61 with 2:47 left, Minnesota ended the game on a 5-0 run to secure the win.
Nneka Ogwumike led the Sparks with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Jordin Canada added 10 points, five rebounds and five assists. Dearica Hamby had nine points and eight rebounds, with Karlie Samuelson finished with nine points.
“People are still dwelling on this loss,” Ogwumike said. “There were mistakes made by competitors in (our) locker room that aren’t happy with how it ended so I think it’s OK to sit with that. It’s OK to have that type of passion for the game and then Thursday we’re going to turn back around and get ready for Dallas.”
Ogwumike averages a team-high 19.6 points and 9.7 rebounds for the Sparks, while Canada leads the team in assists (5.5) and steals (1.9) per game to go along with 13.4 points.
Dallas is led by Ogunbowale’s 23.3 points, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Sabally averages a team-high 10.4 rebounds per game in addition to being the second-leading scorer at 20.0 points per game.
–Field Level Media
