Faced with the prospect of elimination, the No. 6 Dallas Wings made a statement on Sunday. The Wings defeated the No. 3 Connecticut Sun, 89-79, in a must-win WNBA first round playoff game at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
It is the franchise’s first WNBA playoff win since 2009, when the team (then the Detroit Shock) defeated the Atlanta Dream. In the last 13 years, the franchise has moved twice (from Detroit to Tulsa, then Tulsa to Dallas) and failed to qualify for the WNBA playoffs eight of 12 seasons.
“It just shows the resilience and focus of this team,” six-year Wings veteran Allisha Gray said of the ended drought.
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Dallas’ win is even more notable given the result of the first game of the series, when they were overwhelmed by the Sun, 93-68.
“The first thing I told my team is ‘I don’t recognize my team,’” Dallas coach Vickie Johnson said after that loss. “We went back to our old habits, complaining, not taking accountability, and looking at ourselves first. So, we have to change that.”
Change they did.
By the start of the fourth quarter, the Wings were up by 31 points. Kayla Thornton led the charge with 20 points, while three other Wings players finished the day with double-digit points (Teaira McCowan, 17; Gray, 15; Marina Mabrey, 14).
Team basketball at its finest 🙌@Veronicaab22 ➡️ @mmabrey1 ➡️ @KBT_5Blessed
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But the Sun made things interesting in the final moments. Thanks to a 20-2 run, they cut the lead to eight points with two minutes left in the game.
With the first-round series now tied at two, the teams will head to Texas for Wednesday night’s decisive game three.
“Dallas reminds me a lot of Chicago last year. They’re a .500 team that, frankly, has better than .500 talent,” said Sun coach Curt Miller, referring to the Chicago Sky winning the 2021 WNBA title after finishing the regular season ranked sixth. “They got hot late in the year. For one reason or another, they were only .500. But that is an elite, talented team that has top-four talent.”
The Wings have also been playing without two-time WNBA All-Star Arike Ogunbowale since early August after she underwent an iliac crest core muscle avulsion repair.
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