By Kayte Ledbetter

Consistency and a will to win helped the Dallas Wings on Saturday, as they defeated the Los Angeles Sparks by a score of, 98-84, at College Park Center.

The Wings saw history unfold at College Park Center this evening, as the big three of Natasha Howard (28 points), Satou Sabally (26 points) and Arike Ogunbowale (25 points) scored 79 of Dallas’ 98 points in the game, approximately 80% of the total points. They became the second trio of teammates in WNBA history to score at least 25 points in the same game.

“We’re just in that winning mentality and it’s contagious, right,” Head Coach Latricia Trammell said postgame. “Players are having fun and want to win. Home floor means something to them, and they knew we had to take care of business at home. Even though we won three on the road, which was definitely growth for us, and we have another big one coming up here on Tuesday, but really just ecstatic for this team. Multiple players stepped up at multiple times, which is fantastic. When you have a team like that great things are going to happen. I’m really proud of them.”

Howard and Sabally each recorded a double-double, grabbing 11 boards each on top of their offensive output. The duo became the first pair of teammates in WNBA history to each have 25+ points and 11+ rebounds in the same game. Dallas has had two players record a double-double in ten games this season, while no other team has had more than four games with the same occurrence.

Ogunbowale’s 25 points represent her 13^th game scoring 20 or more points and ties her for the second most games with such numbers alongside Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier and New York’s Breanna Stewart.

Los Angeles had been Dallas’ kryptonite leading into tonight’s game. The Sparks had lost 10 of their last 12, with those two wins coming against the Wings.

Natasha Howard and Satou Sabally opened the game with eight points apiece on 6-9 (66.7%) shooting and were equally as dominant in the second quarter. Natasha Howard recorded eight points on 4-4 shooting, while Sabally led scoring efforts with 12 points on 5-7 (71.4%) shooting. The Dallas forwards led scoring efforts that saw the Wings outscore the Sparks 26-18 in the second quarter.

Dallas opened the second quarter on a 10-2 run that allowed them to regain the lead they lost in the final two minutes of the opening quarter. The run saw scoring from four Wings including two layups from McCowan and two baskets from Howard.

The duo of Howard and Sabally seemed to fuel one another throughout the night. Sabally extended Dallas’ lead to six points in the second quarter after finding herself in an and-one opportunity following a fast-break basket off a steal. Howard capitalized on Dallas’s back-to-back possessions due to a Sparks flagrant foul and saw the Wings’ lead extended further to eight points.

Dallas ‘bigs’ Teaira McCowan and Kalani Brown each shot 100% from the field in the first half, with McCowan recording six points and Brown four.

Basketball is a game of runs, and run the Wings sure did. The Wings scored eight uninterrupted baskets in a row in the third quarter that included three consecutively from Arike Ogunbowale before she sunk yet another, this time from deep, after the Sparks made a basket for the first time in almost three minutes. The fourth quarter saw yet another dominant stretch from Dallas with a 9-0 run that included threes from Ogunbowale and Howard.

Dallas’ offense was dominant throughout, scoring 20 plus points in each quarter. Their defense was just as efficient as they held the Sparks below 20 points in the final three quarters.

Coach Trammell had stated pregame that avoiding fouling was a key to tonight’s game. Their combined 70 fouls between the first three games allowed Los Angeles to run away with the games from the free throw line. Dallas made it to the charity stripe one time more than the Sparks, allowing them to score ten points off LA fouls.

It was no surprise that the league’s leading rebounders continued the trend tonight. They came away plus 10 in offensive rebounding and plus 14 in total boards, leading them to shoot nine more field goals than the Sparks.

With the victory, the Wings maintained their second-best home record in the league (8-2) and improved their overall record to 13-9, good for fourth place in the league at the conclusion of tonight’s games. The five-game win streak also ties the Wings longest win streak since they relocated to Dallas in 2016.

“I knew they could do it,” Trammell said of defeating the Sparks and on the team’s current win streak. “That is them putting in the work. That is those players, and I’ve said this before, buying in, executing at a high level. A lot of times giving up the ‘me’ for the ‘we’, which is extremely important. They’re locked in.”

Dallas will play their second game of the three-game home stand at College Park Center against the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. CT.