The Dallas Wings hosted the Atlanta Dream tonight in front of a grand crowd, falling to the Dream 102-93.
Six Wings recorded double figures for the first time this season. Veteran Plenette Pierson and rookie Aerial Powers led the team scoring 16 points. Karima Christmas and Jordan Hooper followed scoring 14. Center Courtney Paris tabbed her second double-double this season, with 11 points and 14 rebounds (eight offensively and six defensively). With the eight offensive rebounds, Paris now leads the league in offensive boards.
The Wings trailed throughout the first half and narrowed the score in the second period before tying it at 38 all when Pierson hit a three with 2:28 left in the period. Pierson’s three, sparked the Wings to take the lead and walk into the 3rd period with a 49-48 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Wings once again saw themselves behind and came back up to tie the game at 80 with a three-point shot from Hooper, which gave her four for the night. Dallas was down as little as four points with 1:26 left, before ending the game with the 102-93 final.
Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry led the night for the dream, scoring 26 points, while Layshia Clarendon recorded 19 points.
The Dallas Wings are back in action this Sunday, May 29. For tickets, go to www.dallaswingsbasketball.com.
Dallas Wings Post-Game Notes
- Courtney Paris’ eight offensive rebounds tonight now place her as league-leader in offensive boards, second overall.
- It was the first time this season that six Wings players hit double figures
- Jordan Hooper scored a season high of 14 points
- Aerial Powers scored a season high of 16 points
- Courtney Paris recorded her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 14 boards
- Both Aerial Powers and Ruth Hamblin were perfect behind the free throw line. The first time the rookies were perfect from the stripe this season.
Atlanta Dream Post Game Notes
- 4-1 is the best start to open season for the Atlanta Dream since 2013 when it also ran out to a 4-1 start thru first 5 game
- Angel McCoughtry finished with a season-high 26 points to lead a total of six Atlanta players that finished with double-figure points.
- 102 points is largest point total for Atlanta since it notched 102 at Connecticut on Aug. 23, 2015.
- 31 scored by Atlanta in the first quarter marked the highest single-game point total for the Dream in any quarter this season.
- The Dream are 4-0 when they trail at halftime this season following tonight’s victory at Dallas. Atlanta was behind 49-48 at intermission.
- 19 free throw attempts by Angel McCoughtry tied her career-high.
Dallas Wings Head Coach Fred Williams
(On the Aerial Powers’s foul trouble)
“She is a rookie and she is learning. She is very energetic to go after a lot of those balls like that. I’d rather have somebody aggressive than non-aggressive. All the players tonight on both teams were aggressive. Some things didn’t go our way tonight, but I’m not going to change that in her. She is a tremendous player with a lot of upside in this league.”
(On picking up team during slump)
“You just have to coach through it and play through it, and I thought we did that throughout the 40 minutes of the ballgame tonight. How you teach that and coach that, it starts at practice. We make the same calls in practice. For Odyssey, she’s going to be double and triple teamed. I thought a few of the other players stepped up and made some things happen. Tonight was a close one all the way to the end. It was a battle and we dug ourselves in a hole in some transition situations. We fought back defensively and we played through a lot of things that didn’t go our way.”
(On Wings guard Skylar Diggins)
“Until she is 100 percent, she won’t be out there. I think everybody wants to see her out there, but if she goes out there at 70 percent and gets hurt, then she is back to square one. I’d rather have her in the long run than in the short run. The home opener was about seeing where she is at and testing her knee. There is a different energy in the game vs. in practice. Different contact and different speed. We looked at that and started building her up more in practice. A lot more full-court stuff and taking more hits and contact. I think she is probably a week or two away.”
Karima Christmas
(On tonight’s physical game)
“We’d like to get up and down, that’s more of our speed. We just have to execute down the stretch knowing they are going to anticipate a lot of our passes. We had a lot of turnovers that got us at the end of the game. We just have to make adjustments and adjust to the flow of the game.”
(On her bumps and bruises)
“I’m feeling okay. In the moment, you try to push through, but we have a short turnaround so I was just trying to get some rest and get ready for the next game.”
Aerial Powers
(On fouling out of tonight’s game)
“I was upset because I was giving to my team defensively and offensively, and I felt like they needed me tonight. For me to foul out, I was bummed about it. I was still excited to cheer them on because I really thought we could win the game with what we had out there. But the clock stopped running and we were down. You can’t win them all.”
Courtney Paris
(On her rebounding performance)
“Before the game, Coach Fred put on the board that we were going to focus on that. Whenever we talk about rebounding, I feel like that’s my job on this team so I try to focus on that.”