Arlington, TX (Sep. 19, 2026) – Today, the Dallas Wings finished their home regular season schedule with an 87-82 win over the Phoenix Mercury in front of a sold-out College Park Center. With the win, Dallas improves to 26-16 on the year and clinches the regular season series over Phoenix, which drops to 15-27 on the year.

Jose Fernandez’s 16-win improvement over Dallas’ 2025 record marks the largest win increase by a first-year head coach in WNBA history, with the Wings improving from 10-34 in 2025 to 26-16 under his leadership in 2026. The Wings have also now won six straight games, tying the longest streak in team history set earlier this season (7/2-7/19).

Paige Bueckers led the Wings with 26 points, four rebounds, five assists, a season-high tying three steals and one block in 31 minutes of action. Bueckers shot 10/19 from the field, including a game-high 5/9 from three-point territory. She tallied 20 of her 26 points in the first half of play, marking the fifth time this season she has scored 20+ in a single half. The outing marked her 24^th 20+ point game of the season, good for fourth in the WNBA, and also gives her 1,514 points in her career- the most by a player through their first two seasons in WNBA history.

Arike Ogunbowale added 22 points, two rebounds, a team-high six assists, one steal and one block in 36 minutes. The performance marked her second game this season with at least 22 points, six assists and zero turnovers, joining Jackie Young as the only two players with multiple such games this season. Awak Kuier and Jessica Shepard rounded out Dallas’s double-digit scorers with 11 points and 10 points respectively.

The Wings recorded 10 steals on the day, led by Aziaha James who grabbed a career-high five, along with four points, three rebounds and one assist. She ties Azzi Fudd for the most steals by a Wings player this season, while Dallas improves to 5-1 on the year when recording 10 or more steals.

Dallas finished the game shooting .423 from the field, .320 from three and .731 from the free-throw line, while Phoenix shot .435 overall, .269 from three and .714 from the charity stripe. The Wings held the advantage on second chance opportunities (10-6) and on the fast break (19-9), while the Mercury won the paint (28-26). Dallas committed just nine turnovers, marking the 12th time this season the team has finished with single-digit turnovers.

Lexi Held led Phoenix with 21 points, two rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block, while Alyssa Thomas recorded a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Dallas and the Mercury will meet in their final matchup of the season on Monday, September 21 in Phoenix. Tipoff at the Mortgage Matchup Center is set for 9:00 p.m. CT, with the game airing on KFAA-29 in the Dallas-Forth Worth area and streaming on WNBA League Pass.

Game Leaders

	Points	Rebounds	Assists
Phoenix	Held (21)	Thomas (10)	Thomas (11)
Dallas	Bueckers (26)	Shepard, Yueru (6)	Ogunbowale (6)

First Quarter: Dallas 19, Phoenix 24

The Wings utilized a starting lineup of Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, Awak Kuier, Maddy Siegrist and Jessica Shepard for the second straight game. Phoenix opened the game on an 8-2 spurt, but the Wings responded on a 7-2 run to close the gap to one, 10-9, with five minutes to play in the first. The Mercury outscored the Wings, 14-10, the rest of the quarter to take a five-point lead into the second, 24-19. Paige Bueckers accounted for 11 of Dallas’s 19 points in the first, shooting 71.4% (5/7) from the floor. The rest of the team shot just 2/12 (16.7%) from the field through the first ten minutes of play.

Second Quarter: Dallas 37, Phoenix 25

An 8-5 start to the second from the Wings cut the deficit to two, 29-27, with 7:26 to play in the first half. Siegrist and Kuier nailed back-to-back triples on that stretch to begin the quarter for Dallas. After trailing 37-30, Dallas went on a 15-4 run to take a four-point lead, 45-41, with three minutes to go in the second. Bueckers notched six of the Wings’ 15 points in that run behind two of her four three-point field goals of the first half. Phoenix responded on a quick 6-2 spurt of their own to tie the game, 47-47, but a 9-2 close to the half from Dallas gave them their largest lead of the game, 56-49, heading into the locker room.

The Wings’ 37 second-quarter points marked the second most points the team has scored in a second quarter in team history and the third highest scoring quarter ever in Wings’ history. Bueckers led the way for Dallas notching 20 points on 8/12 (.667) shooting, including 4/5 (.800) from beyond the arc through two quarters of play. The performance marked her fifth 20-point half of the season, with Dallas improving to 4-1 in games when she reaches that mark. Ogunbowale added 13 points in the first half, 10 coming in the second quarter.

Third Quarter: Dallas 12, Phoenix 14

The two teams shot a combined 0/6 to begin the second half before a fast-break lay-in from Shepard gave the Wings a 58-49 lead and prompted the Mercury into a timeout with 7:44 to go in the third. Phoenix went on an 11-2 run to tie the game, 60-60, but eight unanswered from Dallas gave them a 68-60 lead with 34 seconds to go in the quarter. The Mercury converted on an and-one opportunity plus a free throw from a Wings technical foul to cut the lead back to four, 68-64, entering the fourth. The Wings’ 12 points in the quarter marked a new season-low for third quarter points. Ogunbowale and Shepard each notched four points to pace Dallas in the ten minutes coming out of the break.

Fourth Quarter: Dallas 19, Phoenix 18

The fourth began with a made free-throw from Odyssey Sims and a transition lay-up from Kuier forcing Phoenix to burn a timeout with Dallas extending their advantage to seven, 71-64, with eight minutes left in the game. The Mercury trimmed the lead to four, 73-69, but back-to-back buckets from Bueckers and Shepard pushed the advantage back up to eight, 77-69, with 4:27 to go in the quarter. A 7-1 run from Phoenix cut Dallas’s lead to two, 78-76, with 3:02 and forced the Wings to burn a timeout. The two teams continued to trade buckets, but an and-one conversion from Ogunbowale gave Dallas some separation, 86-81, with a little over a minute to play. The Mercury would get no closer than four points in the final seconds as the Wings held on for the 87-82 win.

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