DHJ Quick Take: Wings Rout Aces 96-66 to End Las Vegas Win Streak
The Dallas Wings beat the Las Vegas Aces 96-66 on June 15, 2026, at College Park Center, ending the Aces’ six-game winning streak with the largest margin of victory in the series’ history. Arike Ogunbowale scored 22 points, Jessica Shepard finished one assist shy of a triple-double, and Dallas held Las Vegas to a season-low 39.7% shooting.
- How did the Dallas Wings beat the Las Vegas Aces? Dallas led wire-to-wire, held the Aces to 66 points, and forced 14 turnovers in a 96-66 win.
- Who led the Wings against the Aces? Arike Ogunbowale scored 22 points with 7 assists, and Azzi Fudd added 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting.
- Did Jessica Shepard record a triple-double? Shepard finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists, one assist short of a triple-double.
- How did Sug Sutton play in her Wings debut? Sutton logged 4 points, 4 assists, and 1 steal in 21 minutes after joining the team.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings beat the Las Vegas Aces 96-66 on Monday at a sold-out College Park Center, ending the Aces’ six-game winning streak and beating Las Vegas for the second time this season. Arike Ogunbowale scored 22 points and added 7 assists without a turnover, and Jessica Shepard came up one assist short of a triple-double with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists.
Dallas never trailed. Azzi Fudd shot 8-of-9 for 19 points, the Wings shot 49.3% from the field and 35.7% from 3-point range, and they built a lead that reached 30 points. Dallas improved to 9-5, while Las Vegas, the reigning champion, dropped to 10-4.
Five Wings scored in double figures, and the 30-point margin was the largest in the history of the series between the two teams. Dallas, which also beat the Aces 95-87 on May 28, has now won multiple games against Las Vegas in a season for the first time since 2018, when the Wings swept all three meetings. The two losses to Dallas account for half of the Aces’ four defeats this year.
The Wings entered as the underdog by reputation. The Aces had won six in a row, and Jackie Young was averaging more than 21 points per game over that stretch. Wings head coach Jose Fernandez laid out the assignment before tip-off.
“You’ve got to guard the paint, you’ve got to be able to guard the arc, and they’re world champions for a reason,” Fernandez said. “There are a lot of things we’re going to have to do well on the defensive end.”
Dallas Wings Defense Holds Las Vegas to 66 Points
Las Vegas scored 20 points in the first quarter and 46 the rest of the way. The Aces managed 17 in the second, 16 in the third, and 13 in the fourth, and they finished 5-of-21 from beyond the arc and committed 14 turnovers that Dallas turned into 18 points. Las Vegas shot a season-low 39.7% from the field and matched its season low with 66 points.
“When we fly around and help each other, we can be a really good defensive team,” Shepard said. “We know that defense leads to easy offense. It was about communicating and putting in that extra effort.”
The Wings locked up the Las Vegas backcourt. Chelsea Gray went scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting, and Young finished with 6 points on 3-of-13. Paige Bueckers drew the assignment on Gray, and Ogunbowale credited the perimeter pressure for setting the tone.
“Defense was a big point for us because everybody can score in this league, and they can score fast,” Ogunbowale said. “Paige starting on Chelsea and Chelsea not scoring at all. Us doing a pretty good job on Jackie and their other guards. I think our defense really dictated everything today.”
Fernandez pointed to a stretch where the Wings kept the ball in front and forced contested looks. Jewell Loyd carried the Las Vegas offense early and led the team with 21 points on 5-of-9 from 3, but the Aces found little else.
“I thought we kept them in front of us,” Fernandez said. “Besides that four-minute stretch before halftime where they went on that run, I thought we played a pretty complete game on both ends of the floor.”
Awak Kuier Frustrates A’ja Wilson Again
A’ja Wilson finished with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting, below her season scoring average, and Dallas leaned on Awak Kuier‘s length to keep her uncomfortable. Kuier made her first start for Dallas since September 5, 2023, alongside Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Fudd, and Shepard in a starting five the Wings used together for the first time this season. She had previewed the plan at shootaround.
“It’s about staying in front of her and making every shot as difficult as possible,” Kuier said. “She’s a great player, so she’s going to make tough shots. But the goal is to always have a hand up, apply pressure, and make her work for everything she gets.”
Fernandez said Kuier has grown comfortable in the matchup, and her rim running forced Las Vegas to defend Dallas from the inside out.
“She changes things in pick-and-roll coverage and from the help side because of her length,” Fernandez said. “I thought she set the tone right away with her rim running and forcing Vegas to defend from inside out. That opened up our perimeter play.”
Shepard offered her own read on the assignment. “Kay did a great job using her length on her and making her take shots farther out than she wanted to,” she said.
Jessica Shepard Flirts With Triple-Double
Shepard ran the offense from the high post and finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists, one assist short of what would have been her third triple-double of the season. She had a 22-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist triple-double against Las Vegas earlier this year, and Fernandez pulled her Monday before she could get the 10th assist. Asked whether she wanted more chances at the end to chase it, Shepard said no, and pointed instead to a loss in Portland that the team was trying to answer.
“I just wanted to come in today because we obviously lost one in Portland and wanted to do whatever the team needed to win,” Shepard said.
Fernandez praised her decision-making in the read-and-react sets.
“Her decision-making has been outstanding,” he said. “She does a really, really good job reading all the zoom actions, the DHOs and the split actions.”
Arike Ogunbowale Efficient in Return
Ogunbowale’s 22 points came on 6-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-11 from 3 and 5-of-6 at the line, and she did not turn the ball over. The performance came two meetings after a game against Las Vegas in which she did not make a field goal, which she said she played while sick.
“I actually probably shouldn’t have played that game because I was a little sick, but I was thirsty to play,” Ogunbowale said. “Every game is different. You show up to work ready to compete and do what you can to help the team. Tonight I was able to help the team a lot.”
Fernandez framed her playmaking as a sign of growth for a guard who has carried heavy scoring loads throughout her career.
“That’s been a big area of growth for Arike because she’s had to be such a high-volume scorer,” Fernandez said. “She doesn’t have to be that on this team because we have Paige, we have Maddy, we have Jess Shepard.”
Azzi Fudd Stays Hot
Fudd’s 8-of-9 night was the best shooting performance of her career and pushed her to an average of 18 points over her last three games. “I felt really settled today,” Fudd told USA Network.
Fernandez said her game has expanded well beyond catch-and-shoot 3s.
“She doesn’t just have a three-point shot anymore,” Fernandez said. “People are flying by her now, and she’s getting to her mid-range game. When defenders crowd her, she’s putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim.”
The ball movement around Fudd kept the looks clean. Ogunbowale, Bueckers, and Shepard combined for 23 assists, and the Wings finished with 30 as a team while shooting better than 70% in the first half. It was just the second time in franchise history that three Wings each handed out 7 or more assists, after July 17, 2024, and Dallas committed a season-low 8 turnovers.
“We talk about it all the time: one more,” Fernandez said. “The way that we space the floor, we should find open shots, not contested ones.”
Fudd saw the same thing from the floor.
“We played great team basketball,” Fudd told USA Network. “We were just super locked in and played together, and when we do that we’re unstoppable.”
Sug Sutton Steady in Dallas Wings Debut
Sug Sutton joined the Wings hours before the game and logged 21 minutes in her debut, finishing with 4 points, 4 assists, and 1 steal. She came in as one of the first substitutes and gave Dallas the option to play Bueckers off the ball.
“I told her she guarded so hard and then smoked the layup,” Fernandez said. “She didn’t get rattled. She had active hands and played really, really hard. She looked like a veteran out there. That gave us an opportunity to play Paige off the ball, which is what we want to do.”
Ogunbowale said Sutton’s poise stood out for a player who had only been through one shootaround.
“For her to come in and be steady and kind of not miss a beat, that shows who she is as a person,” Ogunbowale said. “I think she did really well for her first game.”
At shootaround, Sutton said she sees her defense as her calling card and compared Bueckers to Diana Taurasi, a former teammate.
“I had the opportunity to play with Diana and be there when she reached 10,000 career points,” Sutton said. “One thing about Diana is that she expected greatness from everyone around her. I think Paige is very similar in that regard.”
How the Dallas Wings Pulled Away
Dallas shot 62.5% in the first quarter and led 29-20, then caught fire in the second. Four straight 3s fueled a 17-0 run that pushed the lead to 26 at 52-26, and the Wings piled up 18 assists on their first 20 baskets. Las Vegas answered with a 9-0 spurt late in the half, but Dallas still led 56-37 at the break and outscored the Aces 12-5 on fast-break points for the game.
Fernandez said the start of the third quarter was the night’s biggest question.
“The biggest thing was how we were going to respond at the beginning of the third quarter,” Fernandez said. “The first five minutes were going to be huge. We needed to extend the lead and keep everything at bay.”
The Wings held the Aces to 16 points in the third and carried a 74-53 lead into the fourth behind nine 3-pointers through three quarters. Sutton’s first basket as a Wing made it 86-62 and sparked a 9-0 run, and Aziaha James capped the 30-point win with an and-one. James scored 10 points off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting, with Maddy Siegrist and Alanna Smith adding 5 and 4.
Jose Fernandez on the Dallas Wings’ Culture
The win extended one of the better starts in franchise history, and Fernandez tied it to a shift in how the team operates.
“My job was to come here and talk about standards and the way we wanted to play, then go from being a coach-led team to a player-led team,” Fernandez said. “That was a great response by them today.”
Kuier described the locker room as a big part of the run.
“It’s fun coming to practice, it’s fun playing games, and everybody is in a good mood,” she said. “Having that positive atmosphere in the locker room helps a lot.”
The result also marked a turn in a one-sided series. Ogunbowale noted that Dallas had gone 3-20 against the Aces since her rookie season before this year and now sits at 2-0 against Las Vegas in 2026.
“It’s kind of hard not to be able to compete with any team when you look at the people we have on this roster and the coaching staff we have,” Ogunbowale said. “It’s a new year, a new team, a new coaching staff, and we’re ready to compete with anybody.”
Dallas closes a stretch of five games in nine days on Wednesday with a road game against the Golden State Valkyries. Tip-off at Chase Center is set for 9 p.m. CT, with the game airing locally in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on KFAA 29 and streaming on WNBA League Pass.
More Wings Coverage on Dallas Hoops Journal
- ‘I See So Much Of DT In Paige’: Sug Sutton Compares New Teammate Paige Bueckers To Diana Taurasi
- ‘Pretty Much The Dream’: Sug Sutton Embraces Pass-First, Defensive Role With Dallas Wings
- Sources: Dallas Wings Sign Sug Sutton To Rest-Of-Season Contract
- ‘We Needed More Stops’: Portland Fire’s 3-Point Barrage Sinks Short-Handed Dallas Wings 84-83
- Paige Bueckers Climbs To No. 2 In WNBA MVP Odds After Season-High 31 vs. Phoenix Mercury
- Dallas Wings Rule Out Paige Bueckers Against Portland Fire Out Of ‘Caution’
- Paige Bueckers Questionable For Dallas Wings At Portland; Odyssey Sims Remains Out
- ‘One Of The Best In The World’: Paige Bueckers Erupts For Season-High 31 To Lead Dallas Wings’ Response vs. Phoenix Mercury
- Dallas Wings Target American Airlines Center For 2027 Amid Memorial Auditorium Move Delays
