Teaira McCowan (No. 15) of the Dallas Wings came through with her 11th double-double of the 2024 WNBA season in 90-86 loss to the Washington Mystics on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
ARLINGTON, Texas — After a slow start in the first half, the Dallas Wings nearly made it a comeback against the Washington Mystics at College Park Center on Tuesday evening.
While it was raining in Arlington, Texas, outside of the arena, the Mystics made it rain inside the hardwood court from three-point land. After some opening scores from Ariel Atkins of Washington and Dallas’ Jacy Sheldon and Satou Sabally, Julie Vanloo showcased her prowess beyond the arc with two treys in between Natasha Howard‘s cutting layup shot.
Atkins drew a foul on Sheldon with 6:10 remaining in the first quarter before Howard responded with a Dallas layup.
It became a bit of a scoring barrage from 5:39 to 4:36 left in the opening frame with rookie Aaliyah Edwards banking one of her two free throws while Brittney Sykes and Stefanie Dolson drained threes between Teaira McCowan‘s helpers in the paint for the Wings. Each time the Wings seemed to pull back into the game, the Mystics had a response from downtown.
Namely, Emily Engstler demonstrated her prowess as a versatile scorer, banking her first three pointer with 2:26 remaining in the first quarter. McCowan and Howard responded with some buckets for Dallas before Sika Koné’s jumper with 13 seconds left put Washington ahead of Dallas, 26-16, at the end of the first quarter.
Emily Engstler (No. 21) of the Washington Mystics had a career 19-point game against the Dallas Wings on Tuesday evening at College Park Center. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
Engstler, Atkins and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough brought the Mystics to a 14-point lead over the Wings in the opening 1:59 of the second quarter, 33-19. Much like the first quarter, Sabally, McCowan and Howard provided the majority of Dallas’ scoring while Karlie Samuelson continued to make it pour for Washington’s three-point attack.
Dallas showed signs of life once McCowan and Arike Ogunbowale brought the Wings back within six points of Washington with 2:57 left in the second quarter before Engstler tallied her second trey of the evening 13 seconds later.
A personal foul by Dolson brought McCowan to the stripe with 2:30 remaining, with the Dallas center making both free throws before Maddy Siegrist‘s layup made it a 43-38 score 36 seconds later.
Washington fanned Dallas’ mini scoring scoring streak with threes from Atkins, Samuelson and Engstler to make it a 51-39 lead over the Wings to close out the first half.
Once the second half started, Sabally kicked things off with a layup in the opening 1:13 to make it a 10-point gap for Dallas with Washington. A foul away from the play on Sheldon with 8:27 left in the third quarter resulted in a successful Sykes free throw followed by Dolson’s patented three point score.
Sheldon, Ogunbowale and Kalani Brown made it a seven-point margin inside the final 4:23 before Jade Melbourne got her first basket and one. Like in NASCAR, whenever Dallas closed in on the lead by Washington, the Mystics responded back to continue holding their advantage like the lead car making any threat from their challenge into a difficult circumstance.
Ogunbowale’s late third quarter scoring charge brought Dallas within four of the Mystics with two seconds left before Walker-Kimbrough’s layup extended Washington’s lead over the Wings, 71-65, going into the fourth quarter.
Arike Ogunbowale (No. 24) of the Dallas Wings reached a significant milestone from the free throw line against the Washington Mystics at College Park Center. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
Along the way, Ogunbowale passed Skylar Diggins-Smith for the most free throws made in the Wings’ franchise history at 757, when she sank her free throws in the third quarter.
From the onset of the fourth quarter, it was clear that Dallas fought an uphill battle in a 10-minute frame resembling the entire game for the Wings. Following McCowan’s layup to open the fourth quarter to make it a 71-67 game, Washington went on a 12-0 run, prompting a Dallas timeout with 7:02 remaining.
Holding a 16-point lead over Dallas, Sabally, Sheldon, McCowan and Ogunbowale brought the Wings within six of Washington, resulting in a Mystics timeout with 90 seconds left. While Washington missed a chance at the dagger inside the final minute, a 14-second possession of the ball ate up valuable time for Dallas to mount a comeback.
Despite Howard’s layup with 46 seconds left, it was not enough for another Dallas comeback in front of the hometown faithful. Dropping a 90-86 game to end their five game homestand, the Wings considered what they could have improved upon to get the pivotal win.
“Just hitting people first, being physical, continuing to play the way she planned,” Brown said. “And me coming off and being a spark on the bench. Just being aggressive in the paint and offensive rebounding. When we play inside out, we were really a dangerous team. So we just got to… when we get to that, we got to just stay with that and stick with that.”
One of the intangibles for the Mystics, as observed by Wings head coach Latricia Trammell, is their three-point attack, which ultimately proved advantageous.
“One of the things that they do really well is shoot the basketball, and we know that,” Trammell said. “They’re number one in the league in three pointers made. And so they can space the floor extremely. We’ll put teams in rotations with but again, that’s what makes them deadly. And it’s from [the] first five to what they want to accomplish. And they have the players that fit that.”
After feeling under the weather against the Indiana Fever on Sunday, McCowan wanted to return to her dominant form in the paint for Dallas, proving to be one of the bright spots for her team in a frustrating matchup against the Mystics.
“I’ve been slacking the last few games, so I knew my teammates had just been boosting me up, saying, ‘I got it. Just going to do what I do.’ So tonight I came out and I shook back a little bit,” McCowan shared.
Make no mistake that Trammell and her team wanted to win badly despite the sluggish start as she will review tape and have her squad review areas of opportunities going into Friday night’s matchup against the Atlanta Dream.
Latricia Trammell, head coach of the Dallas Wings, conveyed her thoughts in a frustrating game for the Dallas Wings. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
“Get back in the gym, watch film. And they know. Trust me, they are professional athletes,” Trammell said. “They care about this game and what we’re doing, and we’ll go back and watch. And they’re not satisfied either. They know. They feel like [how] we all do, that we could have won that game.”
Trammell considered the positives with her team but ultimately pointed out what she and her team focused most on – responding better out of the gates to set the tempo against their opponents in these final seven games.
“Five in double digits, we outrebounded them again [and outscored] points in the paint, 48 to 24,” Trammell said. “Fast break points, we didn’t do too well, but Kalani, 10 plus points for the second time in the last three games. [As for] Tea[ira], 11th double-double. That’s something that she wanted to do coming into this. Even the season to get more. Third 20 point game of the year, outrebounding for the 19th time.
“But still, you can say those things but still leaves a bad taste. It’s because you know you could have won. We just got to start better. And I know I know that we’ll bounce back from this.”
The Rundown
Natasha Howard (No. 6) of the Dallas Wings tallied 14 points against the Washington Mystics at College Park Center on Tuesday evening. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
| Washington Mystics | 26 | 25 | 20 | 19 | 90 |
| Dallas Wings | 16 | 23 | 26 | 21 | 86 |
Washington Mystics: By the Numbers
Emily Engstler (No. 21) provided such a spark for the Washington Mystics against the Dallas Wings at College Park Center on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
| Washington Mystics | ||||||||||||||
| Starters | Minutes | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
| Aaliyah Edwards (F) | 21 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -18 | 3 |
| Stefanie Dolson (C) | 17 | 2-4 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Julie Vanloo (G) | 23 | 4-10 | 3-7 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -2 | 11 |
| Brittney Sykes (G) | 19 | 2-6 | 1-3 | 1-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Ariel Atkins (G) | 27 | 5-13 | 1-4 | 3-3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 14 |
| Bench | Minutes | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
| Emily Engstler (F) | 27 | 8-14 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 19 |
| Sika Koné (F) | 15 | 2-7 | 0-1 | 3-3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 7 |
| Karlie Samuelson (G) | 15 | 2-6 | 2-4 | 2-2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 8 |
| Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (G) | 22 | 4-9 | 0-2 | 3-3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 11 |
| Jade Melbourne (G) | 13 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 3-3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Sug Sutton | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
Dallas Wings: By the Numbers
Kalani Brown (No. 21) provided some offensive charge for the Dallas Wings. (Photo: Dylan Nadwodny | The Podium Finish)
| Dallas Wings | ||||||||||||||
| Starters | Minutes | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
| Natasha Howard (F) | 35 | 7-18 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | -1 | 14 |
| Satou Sabally (F) | 33 | 3-11 | 2-4 | 4-6 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | -3 | 12 |
| Teaira McCowan (C) | 27 | 8-12 | 0-0 | 4-5 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | -4 | 20 |
| Arike Ogunbowale (G) | 37 | 7-17 | 2-9 | 5-5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 21 |
| Jacy Sheldon (G) | 21 | 2-4 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | -11 | 6 |
| Bench | Minutes | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
| Maddy Siegrist (F) | 14 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -8 | 2 |
| Kalani Brown (F) | 13 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 4-4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Sevgi Uzun (G) | 19 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Jaelyn Brown (G) | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
| Lou Lopez Sénéchal (G) | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
Playoff Picture
As a result of losing to the Washington Mystics (11-23) on Tuesday night, who defeated the Phoenix Mercury (17-18) on Thursday, 90-77, Dallas (9-24) fell to 11th in the WNBA standings before Friday night’s matchup against the Atlanta Dream (11-22). However, the Wings remain two games behind the Chicago Sky (11-22) who hold the eighth and final playoff seed as of press time. The Wings and Sky battle on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. CT.
Coming Up Next
The Dallas Wings head to the Gateway Center Arena at College Park in College Park, Georgia, for a pivotal third and final matchup with the Dream. Heading into Friday night’s matchup, the season series is tied at 1-1 with Atlanta defeating Dallas, 83-78, on May 21, at home, before Dallas bested Atlanta, 85-82, at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, on July 5. Rhyne Howard leads Dream scorers with 16.7 PTS followed by Allisha Gray (15.7 PTS) and Tina Charles (14.8 PTS).
Friday night’s game between the Wings-Dream can be seen on the WNBA on ION with Angel Gray and LaChina Robinson in the booth and Tabitha Turner reporting from the sideline.
