DHJ Quick Take: Wings Erase 17-Point Hole to Edge Sky 93-92
Dallas wiped out a 17-point second-half deficit and outscored Chicago 36-21 in the fourth quarter to win 93-92 on Li Yueru’s go-ahead free throws, improving to 10-6 and matching last season’s full win total before the midpoint of the schedule.
- How did Dallas complete the comeback? A 36-point fourth quarter, the fourth-largest single-quarter total in franchise history, built on free throws, second-chance points, and a 25-18 edge off turnovers.
- Why did Li Yueru matter again? For the second time this season against Chicago, she came up big, hitting the go-ahead free throws and screening Bueckers free for the four-point play after Alanna Smith was hurt and Awak Kuier fouled out.
- How did this game differ from the Golden State loss? Dallas fell behind early in both, but this time the Wings climbed all the way back, leaning on the defense-first message they carried out of practice.
- What’s next? Dallas plays at the Seattle Storm on Monday, June 22, at 9 p.m. CT.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Dallas Wings wiped out a 17-point second-half deficit and pulled out a 93-92 win over the Chicago Sky on Saturday night at College Park Center, with Li Yueru sinking two free throws with 12.5 seconds left for the team’s first lead of the game.
It was the largest deficit Dallas has erased since a 22-point comeback against the Los Angeles Sparks in August 2024, and the 36 points the Wings hung in the fourth quarter rank as the fourth-highest single-quarter total in franchise history. Dallas improved to 10-6 in front of a sellout of 6,251, already matching its win total from all of last season, while Chicago dropped to 4-11.
Jessica Shepard led the Wings with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists on 7-of-14 shooting, her third 20-point game of the season and the fifth of her career. Paige Bueckers added 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists despite a 7-of-16 night, scoring 10 of the Wings’ final 12 points over the closing 2:27.
The win was the response head coach Jose Fernandez had asked for. Dallas arrived off winnable losses to Portland and Golden State, with a 96-66 rout of Las Vegas in between, and the staff spent the week leaning on defense and short memory rather than reworking the rotation.
“You learn a lot from losses. I thought the Portland game was one where, honestly, even if we had won, we probably didn’t deserve to,” Fernandez said. “Today, you learn a lot from a win like this — the fight, the ability to battle back — but also about not putting ourselves in that position to begin with, because a lot of things went our way too.”
Bueckers had summed up the approach after Friday’s practice.
“How can we win when the ball isn’t falling? How can we rely on our defense to set the tone for our offense?” she said.
Dallas Wings Save Their Best Basketball for the Fourth Quarter
Dallas trailed 71-57 after three quarters and gave little early sign a rally was coming. The Wings dug a 28-16 hole in the first quarter, and only a 7-of-14 first half from beyond the arc kept them within range.
“I was very proud of how we kept battling. Good teams find a way to win,” Fernandez said. “I thought that first half wasn’t us. The nine offensive rebounds we gave up — it just seemed like we could never get ourselves going.”
The fourth quarter flipped it. The Wings opened on a 12-5 run, seven of those points from Shepard, to cut the margin to 76-69 with 7:09 left, then leaned on the free-throw line as Chicago slipped into the bonus.
“Not much, honestly. We just became more aggressive offensively,” Fernandez said of the turn. “What happened was we started getting to the free-throw line. Once you’re in the bonus, the clock stops. That gave us an opportunity to extend the game and make up ground. The clock was on our side because we were getting to the line.”
Shepard described a group that never stopped believing it was in the game.
“We were just trying to attack, chip away, and not hit any home runs. One possession at a time,” Shepard said. “Dig in defensively, execute offensively, keep communicating in the huddles, and stick with it until the final buzzer. That’s what you saw.”
The supporting math backed it up. Dallas finished 17-of-21 from the stripe, turned 9 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points, outscored Chicago 25-18 on points off turnovers, and connected on 10-of-25 from 3-point range to the Sky’s 7-of-23, enough to overcome a 48-38 deficit in the paint and a 43-35 gap on the glass.
The closing stretch turned frantic. A Sydney Taylor triple and three Skylar Diggins free throws pushed Chicago ahead 92-86 with 35.7 seconds to go before the game tilted in a span of half a minute. Taylor fouled out, Azzi Fudd hit one at the line to make it 92-87, and Bueckers answered with a four-point play, drilling a 3-pointer through contact and adding the free throw to draw Dallas within 92-91 with 30.6 seconds left. Kamilla Cardoso then turned the ball over and committed her sixth foul, sending Yueru to the line for the go-ahead free throws. Late looks from Jacy Sheldon and Azura Stevens missed, and Dallas held on.
Li Yueru Steadies Dallas After Alanna Smith and Awak Kuier Exit
The Wings finished the comeback short-handed. Alanna Smith left with an injury Fernandez said is still being evaluated, and Awak Kuier fouled out with 6 personals, which pushed Yueru into 15 minutes. She delivered 5 points, 6 rebounds, and the two free throws that decided it. It was the second time this season Yueru has tilted a game against Chicago, after she swung a 99-89 win at Wintrust Arena last month with a plus-18 in 19 minutes off the bench.
“We needed Li to play big, and she stepped up,” Fernandez said. “It was her moment.”
Yueru, who hit her free throws with the building tense, said the moment didn’t rattle her.
“Actually, I’ve been in that situation before with the national team, so I didn’t really feel a lot of pressure,” Yueru said. “But my heart was beating really fast. I wanted to help bring a win for our team, and I appreciate my teammates trusting me. I just wanted to focus on the moment and be ready for every second.”
She has spent the season ready for nights exactly like this one, even when her number isn’t called.
“For me, I just try to be ready every day and every moment. If the team needs me, I try to be my best on the court,” Yueru said. “If I can’t do that yet, then I try to practice more and keep getting better day by day. Even when I’m sitting on the bench, I want to be the best cheerleader for my teammates. I love to see us win.”
Yueru also set the screen that sprung Bueckers for the four-point play. Both Bueckers and Shepard spent more time on her preparation than her box score.
“Just having somebody like that in the locker room who shows up the same way every single day regardless of how many minutes she plays or how many shots she gets — she’s just a light in the locker room,” Bueckers said. “Everybody loves being around her. She’s always smiling, always having a good time. That’s really important over a 44-game season. We’re going to need her on nights like this, and for her to stay ready and stick with it says a lot about who she is as a person.”
Shepard pointed to Yueru’s impact across both meetings with Chicago.
“I think Li has done a great job both times we’ve played Chicago. She’s come in and played huge minutes for us,” Shepard said. “It’s hard to be in that position. It’s hard to stay ready. But she does a great job staying prepared. She puts in work outside of practice, and today she was a huge help.”
Paige Bueckers Closes Through a Cold Night
Bueckers shot 1-of-5 from deep and spent much of the night hunting for rhythm, then poured in 10 points across the final 2:27. When the shot wasn’t dropping, she finished with 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals.
“I try to affect the game in other ways. Maybe be better defensively, rebound more, get my teammates open a little bit more, and just have positive self-talk,” Bueckers said. “We work so hard in this sport, and some nights it’s not your night shooting the ball. But until the buzzer sounds, things can always change.”
Her lone make from beyond the arc, the four-point play off Yueru’s screen, came when Dallas needed it most.
“I saw a little bit of daylight, and I knew I had to go up. I just had confidence in it,” Bueckers said. “My teammates did a great job getting me open, and I was just trying to knock it down.”
Fernandez said he rarely has to coach Bueckers through those nights.
“I don’t have to say much to her. She’s one of the best players on the planet. She knows the standard she holds herself to,” Fernandez said. “I don’t have to yell at her or get upset. She knows. It’s really just small conversations and continuing to put her in positions where she can get the ball in the right spots.”
Kamilla Cardoso Dominates Inside as Slow Starts Persist
Dallas won despite Cardoso, who poured in 26 points and 9 rebounds on 10-of-13 shooting and led a 48-point night in the paint for Chicago.
“She’s a great player, and Chicago does a great job getting her the ball. It starts with ball pressure and taking away angles,” Fernandez said. “If you’re playing behind her, you have to determine where the double team is coming from. If you’re fronting her, the backside help has to be there. We tried just about everything. There’s a reason she gets so deep in the paint. Once she catches it there, she’s going to finish around the rim.”
Shepard credited Yueru for finally slowing Cardoso after the break.
“Obviously, Cardoso is a great player, and when she gets the ball deep, it’s really hard to stop her,” Shepard said. “But I think in the second half, Li did a great job of making her catches difficult and wearing her down a little bit. That was a huge lift for the team.”
Taylor added 18 points, and Diggins finished with 14 points and 6 assists, though the Sky stranded 10 points at the line on a 19-of-29 night that proved costly in a one-possession loss.
Fudd anchored the other end with a career-high 4 blocks to go with 13 points and a career-high 5 rebounds, becoming the only rookie guard in franchise history with at least 4 blocks in a regular-season game and joining Seattle’s Flau’jae Johnson as the only rookies to do it leaguewide this season. Arike Ogunbowale scored 12 points with three 3-pointers, her 11th double-digit outing of the year, but also drew a third-quarter technical. Maddy Siegrist provided an 8-point lift off the bench in the second quarter, and sophomore guard Aziaha James, whose physical perimeter defense had been a point of emphasis entering the night, closed the third quarter with Dallas’s final 4 points.
Fernandez singled out the rest of what James gave Dallas, even with an empty steal-and-block line on the box score.
“Huge. Huge because she gets her hands on so many things,” Fernandez said. “There are so many things she does that don’t show up on the stat sheet. People look at points, three-point percentage, assists. But nobody sees who she guards every night.”
The recurring worry is the start. Dallas dug itself the 28-16 first-quarter hole and still trailed by 17 in the third before the rally, and Fernandez put the defensive breakdowns on himself.
“We’ve got to defend better. The ball isn’t going in the basket, and that’s something we can improve. I take it personally,” Fernandez said. “We’re not keeping people in front of us. Our transition defense has to be better. We’ve got to do a better job getting our guards off big guys.”
Shepard said the responsibility starts with the first unit.
“Today, as starters, we didn’t do a great job of coming out with the energy and intensity that we needed on either side of the ball,” Shepard said. “A lot of that responsibility falls on the starters. We have to be ready from the jump.”
Even with the warts, Fernandez framed the 10-6 start as proof of where the group is headed.
“It’s belief,” he said. “I have a great group to coach and an unbelievable staff. And there’s a lot more coming.”
Dallas takes its 10-6 record on the road Monday at the Seattle Storm, where the same slow starts will be tougher to survive, with tip-off set for 9 p.m. CT on KFAA and WNBA League Pass. The Wings and Sky meet once more this season, on July 12 at American Airlines Center.
