Dallas Wings lose third straight game while Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson makes WNBA history (2024)

The Dallas Wings sought redemption Wednesday for the sweep by the Las Vegas Aces that ended their playoff run last season, but they didn’t find it.

Instead, one of their opponents made WNBA history in Dallas’ 95-81 loss in front of a sold-out crowd at College Park Center, where A’ja Wilson became the first WNBA player with at least 35 points, 10 rebounds and five steals in a game.

It was the third consecutive loss for the Wings following a five-game road trip, and their first meeting with the two-time defending league champions since their playoff loss in September.

Wilson started the scoring in the first quarter with a layup and never looked back, tallying 14 points to help her team build a 29-16 lead. She finished with 36 points, 14 rebounds and six steals.

“One thing Vegas does a really good job of is pulling you out defensively, really spacing the floor,” Wings head coach Latricia Trammell said after the game. “They have a lot of guards that can get downhill efficiently, and it puts defenses in rotation.”

Dallas narrowed the deficit in the second quarter, 47-42, with star Arike Ogunbowale breaking away with 14 points of her own. Teaira McCowan played stellar defense with three rebounds and two blocks to help hold Wilson to just six points.

The Wings kept the game close for the majority of the third quarter, trailing the Aces 68-61 with 1:20 remaining, but a driving layup and a 3-pointer from Kelsey Plum, followed by a Wilson jump shot with four seconds left, opened up a 13-point lead.

“I think we just kind of let our guard down,” Ogunbowale said of the last minute of the third quarter. “We cut it to three, and we kind of relaxed a little bit, so we just have to keep that intensity up.”

Trammell said her team let the Aces have too many additional chances to score.

“We gave them extra opportunities,” she said. “We talked about this, too, defensively, just having mishaps in our rotations.”

The Aces put the game away in the fourth quarter, leading by as many as 19.

Ogunbowale led Dallas with 31 points, while McCowan made her first career 3-pointer in the first half and finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Maddy Siegrist also scored 14 points and Monique Billings added 12.

“She’s a great player, a two-time MVP,” Ogunbowale said of Wilson. “You can only try to limit her. You cannot really stop her. That’s how good of a player she is. It takes team defense against a player like that, but she did great.”

The Wings lost their second game in the Commissioner’s Cup, the WNBA’s in-season tournament, dropping to last in the Western standings.

“We had a lot of open shots,” Trammell said. “We just missed them. Arike and I were talking about that coming in, but a lot of things to build on. A lot of positives.”

Dallas goes on the road again for its next game in the Cup, facing the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday at Crypto.com Arena.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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