‘Getting Stops When It Mattered’: Dallas Wings Hold Off Portland Fire Rally, Win 101-97 Behind Arike Ogunbowale’s 24 Points In Second Half

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Dallas Wings held off a furious fourth-quarter rally from the Portland Fire on Wednesday, winning 101-97 in front of 17,206 at Moda Center to improve to 18-9 heading into the WNBA All-Star break. The game featured 7 lead changes and 3 ties.

Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas with 24 points, all of them scored after halftime following a scoreless first half on 0-of-2 shooting. She finished 8-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range and 5-of-6 at the free-throw line. Jessica Shepard recorded another triple-double, finishing with 18 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists.

Paige Bueckers returned to the lineup after missing Dallas’s previous two games and scored 21 points on 7-of-17 shooting to go with 5 assists. Azzi Fudd made 3 of 8 from deep to extend her streak of games with at least 3 three-pointers to five, finishing with 11 points. Maddy Siegrist scored 14 off the bench. Dallas finished with 28 assists on 35 made field goals.

Dallas Wings Respond After Six-Game Streak Snapped

Dallas entered Wednesday off a loss to the New York Liberty that snapped a franchise-record six-game winning streak, a game Wings coach Jose Fernandez said was decided in part by rebounding and defensive breakdowns.

“Don’t forget, before the New York game we had won six straight,” Fernandez said before the game. “We didn’t close the way we wanted to the other night. I thought the glass was a very big part of that, along with some personnel coverages and some defensive breakdowns. … You want to go into the break with a win, especially a road win.”

Fernandez named guarding the 3-point line and taking care of the basketball as Dallas’s top priorities against Portland, an emphasis Sug Sutton echoed at shootaround.

“Defensively, stopping their pick-and-roll game is really important because they’re really good in those situations,” Sutton said. “Our pick-and-roll defense is going to be a big key tonight.”

Slow Start, Then Dallas Wings Take Control

Dallas trailed by as many as 8 points in the first half, and Maddy Siegrist provided a significant spark off the bench during the slow start. She scored 10 points in just over 10 minutes of first-half action, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 15-15 late in the first quarter, while Ogunbowale was held scoreless before halftime.

Fernandez had signaled that kind of contribution was possible even before tip-off, saying Dallas’s bench rotation often comes down to matchups.

“It’s a long year, and a lot of it comes down to minutes and matchups,” Fernandez said. “Both of them really contributed when called upon against New York. I thought Maddy did a good job spacing the floor. Sometimes defensive matchups dictate minutes and the decisions you make collectively.”

Siegrist finished with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, and Fernandez said the performance carried over from what she gave Dallas against New York.

“I think she’s stayed ready,” Fernandez said. “She continues to work, and it’s a long year. We play different lineups and we’ll have different matchups. She was big against New York, and that carried over into today.”

Dallas outscored Portland 36-27 in the third quarter to take a 76-69 lead into the fourth. Shepard’s fast-break layup made it 85-73 with 7:40 left in the fourth quarter, the Wings’ largest lead of the night.

Megan DiLeo scored 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and Bridget Carleton added 18 as Portland fought back. DiLeo was called for a flagrant foul on Li Yueru in the second quarter, then blocked one of Yueru’s layup attempts on the ensuing possession. Carla Leite finished with 12 points and 11 assists, and Frieda Bühner scored 15 off the bench.

Arike Ogunbowale, Azzi Fudd Provide the Perimeter Punch

Ogunbowale’s outburst continued a strong recent stretch; she entered the night averaging 22.5 points over her previous four games. She credited Dallas’s ball movement and her own aggression downhill for unlocking the second-half surge.

“We’ve been sharing the ball,” Ogunbowale said. “Personally, for me, it’s just about getting to the rack, getting to the basket, using my strength to get to the rim and kind of opening things up for our shooters on the outside. I think we’ve just been playing really aggressive, and it feels good going into the break like this.”

Portland coach Alex Sarama pointed to the early exit of Sarah Ashlee Barker, who left the game after just 4 minutes, as part of what let Ogunbowale get going.

“It was a huge blow because of everything SA brings,” Sarama said. “She’s the heart and soul of this group. … She’s one of the better point-of-attack defenders in the league. That’s the role we’ve been using her in, so losing her really hurt our defense, especially in the second half.”

Sarama said Barker was still awaiting a full evaluation from the team’s performance staff, and he named defensive rebounding and one-on-one containment as the areas his group still needs to improve.

“We saw that with Arike really going off in the second half,” Sarama said. “Schematically, I think we’re doing the right things with our pick-and-roll coverages and guarding actions. It comes down to whether we can defend one-on-one and contain for two or three dribbles without giving up an angle and allowing the offense to create an advantage.”

Fernandez said Fudd has worked to counter defenses that take away her 3-point looks, a scheme Portland leaned on by running Dallas’s shooters off the line.

“When teams take away the three-point line, what’s the next step? What’s the next action?” Fernandez said. “She understands that. I think she’s looking to put the ball on the deck more. Through film work, she’s been focused on getting to the rim and attacking the basket when defenders press up on her at the three-point line.”

How Each Team Generated Its Offense

Portland leaned on an aggressive scheme throughout, hedging and recovering on ball screens to keep Dallas’s guards from turning the corner, mixing in aggressive nail help and early low-defender rotations, and closing out hard to run shooters off the 3-point line. Dallas pushed the pace when the break was there but stayed patient in the half court for most of the night, reading those rotations into quality looks. The Wings scored 30 points on spot-up chances, the third time this season they have cleared that mark, with Shepard’s 6 offensive rebounds alone extending several of those possessions.

Portland’s offense leaned heavily on the pick-and-roll, the exact action Sutton had prioritized at shootaround, where she also credited the defense’s growth against ball screens even without Alanna Smith, out with a right leg injury.

“I think our defense has started to get better,” Sutton said. “We’re communicating more and doing a better job defending pick-and-rolls, which is one of the biggest challenges in this league because everybody runs pick-and-roll. That was one of our struggles earlier, but we’ve improved by staying connected, packing the paint and helping each other through multiple defensive actions.”

Portland still scored 41 points off the pick-and-roll on Wednesday, split between the roller (22) and the ball handler (19). Its catch-and-shoot 3-point shooting, though, was not as dangerous as it had been in the teams’ first meeting on June 13, when the Fire beat Dallas 84-83 on free throws after a foul with 1.7 seconds left.

Portland actually out-shot Dallas from the field, 56.9% to 48.6%, and outscored the Wings 48-32 in the paint. Dallas offset that with a 19-of-24 night at the free-throw line and its edge on the offensive glass.

Portland Fire’s Press Nearly Erases the Lead

Portland’s full-court pressure forced two of Dallas’s most costly turnovers in the final three minutes. Ogunbowale lost the ball on the sideline with 2:40 to play, leading directly to a Karlie Samuelson 3-pointer that cut Dallas’s lead to 3. Shepard was stripped with 33.8 seconds left, setting up another Samuelson basket that made it a 2-point game. Siegrist made both ends of a free-throw trip with 0.7 seconds remaining for the final margin.

“I think just taking care of the ball,” Ogunbowale said of the pressure. “They’re a pressing team, and I think we were kind of running away from it instead of coming to it and staying off the sideline. … We’ll look at our press break on film. It’ll be good because when you get deeper into the season, teams might press us and teams might see this film.”

Wings coach Jose Fernandez said the late turnovers will be a point of emphasis before Dallas returns from the break.

“We turned it over on that sideline and they hit a three, and then the other one with Shep,” Fernandez said. “I think our group understands there are different things we need to do a much better job of when it comes to valuing the basketball down the stretch.”

Jessica Shepard, Arike Ogunbowale Make an Impact

Dallas won the possession battle behind Shepard, who grabbed 6 offensive rebounds by herself, compared to 3 for Portland’s entire team. The Wings turned that into a 16-4 advantage in second-chance points, a sharp turnaround after Fernandez pointed to the glass as a problem in the loss to New York.

Ogunbowale said winning that battle, along with a handful of stops down the stretch, made the difference.

“Getting stops when it mattered. Defending the three when it mattered,” Ogunbowale said. “Obviously, we had some slippage at the end of the game, but we got stops when it mattered, and that’s all that matters. Portland, obviously we know their record, but they’re still a really, really good team. We lost to them the last time we were here, so we definitely didn’t come in and take it lightly.”

“I thought Arike really had a really good second half,” Fernandez said. “She had zero at halftime, then she came out aggressive and attacked. … Shepard had another triple-double, and Paige came back after not playing and did what she did tonight. I thought Maddy Siegrist was huge tonight on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively.”

Sutton pointed to the offense’s growth in finding its second and third options as a key entering the matchup.

“Once we get to that second and third option, we can really get anything we want within our offense because we have so many scorers,” Sutton said. “Teams are taking away our first option, so getting into those second and third actions has been the biggest adjustment.”

Siegrist credited the ball movement that produced Dallas’s 28 assists on 35 made field goals.

“I thought we played really unselfishly tonight,” Siegrist said. “I think everyone was moving the ball. We had a couple of turnovers where we were probably moving it a little too much, but I think when we play like that, we’re really hard to stop offensively.”

Up Next

The Wings head into the All-Star break at 18-9. Portland fell to 11-16. Siegrist said the win, coming off the loss to New York, reflected the team’s growth.

“I think tonight we grew,” Siegrist said. “It was a tough game against New York, and to be able to come back and respond tonight was important. … I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface, so if we can continue to grow and grow together, good things will happen.”

Fudd will represent Dallas in the WNBA All-Star 3-Point Contest, part of what Bueckers described as a Wings presence across every event at All-Star Weekend. She’ll be joined in the field by Portland’s Bridget Carleton, who was also selected. Bueckers laid out the team’s priorities for after the break.

“Cleaning up our rebounding, cleaning up our defensive connectivity, our ball-screen coverage, and being disciplined with our scouting report and knowing personnel,” Bueckers said. “On offense, continuing to take care of the ball, limiting our turnovers, keeping the ball moving, keeping player movement on both sides of the floor, and just staying connected and staying together.”