DALLAS — Arike Ogunbowale scored 32 points and passed 5,000 for her career on Thursday night. The Dallas Wings beat the Indiana Fever 91-85 at American Airlines Center, ending Indiana’s five-game winning streak.
Jessica Shepard set a career high with 26 points. Awak Kuier blocked 7 shots, a Dallas single-game record, and the Wings took the season series from the Fever for the first time since 2023.
The victory was the Wings’ 21st of the season, one short of the franchise record of 22, set in 2023. Dallas is 21-16. Indiana fell to 24-13 and held at 24 wins, the total it finished with last season, missing its first chance at a franchise record for victories.
Arike Ogunbowale Reaches 5,000 Career Points
Ogunbowale shot 12-of-22 from the field, 2-of-6 from 3-point range, and 6-of-7 at the free-throw line. She added 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal in 34 minutes, 34 seconds. The 32 points were a season high. Through 36 games entering Thursday, she had averaged 14.9 points.
Ogunbowale scored 25 of the 32 after halftime, a season high for points in a half. She made her first six attempts of the third quarter and scored 15 in the period, also a season high. She added 10 in the fourth.
She is the third-fastest player in WNBA history to reach 5,000 points and 1,000 assists, getting there in 261 games.
This is her eighth WNBA season, and all of them have come with the franchise that drafted her in 2019.
Ogunbowale said the milestone belongs to her teammates, her coaches, and the organization.
“It’s definitely special,” Ogunbowale said. “There’s a lot of greats that have been in this league, a lot of people that have been scoring. And to be in the record books so far and to do it with the franchise that drafted me is definitely special. So all glory to God, all thanks to my teammates, my coaches, the organization.”
Dallas Wings Respond Without Azzi Fudd
Thursday was the Wings’ first game since they announced that Azzi Fudd, this year’s No. 1 overall pick, will miss the rest of the season to undergo an arthroscopic procedure on her right knee.
Dallas had gone 2-7 in nine games since the All-Star break. Indiana arrived 24-12, first in the Eastern Conference, and leading the WNBA at 96.4 points a game.
Fudd started 24 of the 30 games she played this season. Wings coach José Fernández said before tip-off that Aziaha James, Odyssey Sims, and Alysha Clark had each started in her place, and that a fourth player would fill the spot Thursday. Kuier got it. James was inactive with a lower left leg injury.
Paige Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Kuier, Alanna Smith, and Shepard started together for the first time this season. It was the 10th different starting five Dallas has used.
Fernández also detailed what Dallas loses defensively without Fudd before the game.
Defenses have loaded the blocks and elbows and helped at the nail against Bueckers, and Fernández said the answer is better ball movement and getting the ball to the second side.
“Transition. We got to get easy baskets, whether it be straight line drives from end to end, pitch-ahead threes, pitch-ahead drives, rim runs,” Fernández said. “I think the more that we can score early in those first seven seconds, eight seconds of the shot clock will help. Because now when you’re going five on five and people are loading the blocks and elbows and helping at the nail and throwing people at Paige, that’s where it gets difficult, unless you’ve got better ball movement and player movement and the ball going to our second side of stuff in the half court.”
Dallas ran 13 transition possessions to Indiana’s 5 and scored 1.154 points per possession on them. The Wings had 10 fast-break points to Indiana’s 6.
Awak Kuier Sets Dallas Wings Blocks Record
Kuier’s 7 blocks broke the Wings’ single-game record of 5, a mark first set in 2018 and matched by Kuier in 2021. She finished with 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists on 4-of-8 shooting, including 2-of-6 from 3-point range, in a career-high 35 minutes, 40 seconds. Dallas blocked 8 shots to Indiana’s 3.
Four of the blocks came in the second quarter, the most by a Wings player in any quarter. Kuier had 5 by halftime, the first Dallas player to reach that number in a half. Hers was one of three seven-block games league-wide this season.
Dallas needed to see a win and feel one, in Kuier’s words, after losing to playoff teams through most of August.
“I feel like I needed to be there and help on the paint, and I feel like they have really good drivers, so I just made sure that I was there on time,” Kuier said.
Indiana ran 4 post-up possessions to Dallas’ 14 and scored 0.500 points per possession on them. The Fever generated 29 of their 82 charted possessions out of pick-and-roll with the ball handler.
Smith played 9 minutes, 38 seconds and picked up 5 fouls. Kuier switched onto guards and posts and covered the paint behind the first defender, in Ogunbowale’s account of it.
“Kuier, she can guard one through five. She switches with the guard, she can switch with the post,” Ogunbowale explained. “If we get beat, she’s there in the paint, and I think she just had an amazing game.”
“We definitely wouldn’t have won without her,” Ogunbowale continued.
Kuier speaks Finnish and English, and she hyped herself up after one of the blocks.
“English, for sure,” Kuier explained. “I couldn’t be saying anything in Finnish. That would just feel weird.”
Jessica Shepard Sets Career High With 26 Points
Shepard went 11-of-16 from the field, 1-of-1 from 3-point range, and 3-of-8 at the line, and she grabbed 8 rebounds in 35 minutes, 29 seconds. Her previous career high was 22 points, including on Aug. 5 at Washington. Entering Thursday she averaged 13.9 points and 11.2 rebounds over 34 games.
Shepard scored 11 in the first quarter on 5-of-6 shooting, matching her career high for a quarter. She had 22 by halftime on 10-of-11, tying her career high after 18 minutes of play. No player in Wings history had made 10 field goals while shooting at least 90% in a half.
The 3-pointer was her first since the 2022 season.
Shepard is still finding her footing after missing time with an injury.
“I think I just wanted to be more aggressive,” Shepard said. “Obviously, coming off the Golden State game and coming back from injury, I’m just kinda finding my footing again. And my teammates did a great job of finding me in those openings.”
Dallas had lost four of five before Thursday, a stretch Shepard said the team wanted to answer at home.
“I think like Rike said, we wanted to come in and kinda take it personal,” Shepard explained. “We knew that we’ve been on a little skid here, and we wanted to make sure that we showed up and put together 40 minutes.”
“I think we still had a couple minutes in there probably that we could’ve been better as a team, and just keep learning every game and hopefully get some more wins,” Shepard added.
Alysha Clark finished with 5 points and 4 rebounds in 15 minutes, 30 seconds. Sims had 2 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Maddy Siegrist scored 2 points and was a plus-16, the best mark on either team. The Dallas bench outscored Indiana’s reserves 9-4.
How The Dallas Wings Pulled Away
Indiana led 18-10 six minutes in. Four straight points from Shepard cut it to 20-16, and the Fever carried a 22-18 lead out of the first quarter. Dallas missed all 4 of its 3-point attempts in the period.
Shepard opened the second quarter with 5 points, and Indiana called timeout with Dallas within 24-23 at the 8:01 mark. The Fever committed a shot-clock violation out of the timeout. Bueckers went 1-of-2 at the line to tie it 24-24.
A 5-0 run gave Dallas its first lead at 33-32, capped by a Kuier 3-pointer with 3:54 left in the half. Mitchell answered with a 3-pointer. Ogunbowale converted an and-1 to put the Wings back ahead 36-35 with 3:27 to go.
Dallas led by three before Mitchell hit a 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left to tie the game 42-42 at the break. The Wings shot 51.4% in the first half to Indiana’s 45.2%.
Dallas led 59-54 with 2:53 left in the third and took a 66-61 lead into the fourth. Indiana shot 33.3% in the quarter.
The Wings opened the fourth with Bueckers on the bench. Shepard and Alysha Clark scored, Alysha Clark added a 3-pointer, and Odyssey Sims made two free throws. Bueckers returned and hit a jumper for the Wings’ first 10-point lead at 74-64. A 10-6 start to the period put Dallas ahead 76-67 and forced an Indiana timeout with 6:42 to play, with Bueckers scoring 4 of the 10. The Fever did not get within five again.
There were 9 lead changes and 8 ties. Indiana’s largest lead was 8. Dallas’ was 11.
Dallas scored 46 points in the paint on 23-of-36 shooting inside. Indiana scored 28 on 14-of-30. The Fever had outscored the Wings 112-80 in the paint across the first two meetings. The Wings turned 7 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points.
Indiana committed 9 turnovers, and Dallas scored 9 points off them. The Wings turned it over 9 times, and the Fever scored 6.
Dallas shot 34-of-72 for 47.2% and made 5-of-18 from 3-point range. The Wings went 18-of-27 at the free-throw line.
Fernández said before the game that communication in transition defense would decide the rematch.
“We got to keep guys in front of us. We got to do a much better job guarding the arc, right? Stopping it early, but that’s something that Indiana does well, right?” Fernández explained. “Miss or makes they’re pushing and you got to stop the point of attack and make sure you match up, right? You got to run to the three-point line and match up and not run to the basket. So our communication and transition defense will be huge.”
Indiana made 7 of 23 from 3-point range.
Ogunbowale was assessed a technical foul with 2:21 left in the first quarter. Bueckers was assessed one with 7:55 left in the third. Kuier drew a defensive three-second technical with 52 seconds left in the second quarter, and Aliyah Boston drew one with 8 seconds left in the third.
Kelsey Mitchell Scores 37 As Indiana Fever Streak Ends
Kelsey Mitchell tied her season high with 37 points on 9-of-18 shooting, 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and 15-of-15 at the free-throw line. She scored 21 before halftime, giving her 21 consecutive games with at least 20 points. That is a WNBA record, and it moved her past Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson.
The inbound play that got her there started with 5.4 seconds left in the first half, after Bueckers and Caitlin Clark got tangled up while Bueckers tried to foul her on purpose. Dallas held Mitchell to 6 points in the third quarter.
Mitchell credited her teammates for making her look good.
“I think that it’s a part of the game. So, for one, I just want to congratulate my team for making me look good,” Mitchell said. “But I think, ultimately, it just comes down, obviously, to work. But I don’t really take statistics really that serious. So a lot of this stuff is really circumstantial to me. And so I want to get the dub and we didn’t get that. So I think keep my focus on the right thing, keeping the main thing. The main thing is important.”
Caitlin Clark had 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 9 assists on 4-of-15 shooting. Bueckers had 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists on 5-of-16. It was Bueckers’ eighth game this season with at least 8 assists, tying Shepard for the most on the team. The two No. 1 overall picks combined to go 9-of-31 from the field six days after each scored 29 in Indiana’s 98-87 win. Both are expected to make their senior United States national team debuts at the FIBA World Cup in two weeks, along with Fever center Aliyah Boston.
Boston scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Makayla Timpson had 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Lexie Hull scored 9. Indiana shot 27-of-66 for 40.9% and went 24-of-26 at the free-throw line. The Fever bench scored 4 points. Sophie Cunningham missed all 4 of her shots, all from 3-point range.
Dallas Wings Draw 20,297 At American Airlines Center
The announced crowd of 20,297 was a sellout and the second-largest for a Wings home game in franchise history. Thursday was Dallas’ third home game this season at American Airlines Center, the home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, and the Wings will play all of their 2027 home games there.
Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban watched from a courtside seat. Cooper Flagg, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick and reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, watched from a suite.
Dallas averaged 7,273 fans a game at College Park Center last season.
“Our players are pros, so they’ve played in big venues in college at the highest stakes and the biggest arenas in the W. So I think it’s exciting, the buzz, that we’re going to be here next year and this game playing Indiana in a sold-out venue,” Fernández said. “We’ve had incredible support here for our previous two games this year. So we just came in today and shot around. We didn’t practice here yesterday, but there’s been an incredible buzz with everything that the Dallas Wings organization did today professionally and our community engagement as well.”
“I think just excitement. Obviously sold out, maybe. Was it sold out today? Sold out crowd, just energy and being in the city of Dallas,” Ogunbowale said.
“We wear Dallas on our jerseys, and just being in the city of Dallas, representing the city, and just bringing excitement. Have people, for their summers, have games they want to come to, bring their kids, bring their families, and just have somewhere that they can enjoy and support their home team. So, just bringing excitement and good basketball,” Ogunbowale added.
What’s Next For The Dallas Wings
Dallas had won six straight in July, the longest streak since the franchise moved to Texas 10 years ago. Thursday was its fourth win in 12 games since that run ended.
Eighth place is still available, and higher than that is too, in Ogunbowale’s view.
“It was definitely big. Another team just clinched on us, and we were like, we didn’t wanna be the team that teams are clinching on. And we kinda wanted to take it personal,” Ogunbowale said. “Last game we went there, it was a tough game, and we didn’t come out with the W, so we definitely wanted to come give the American Airlines Center a show, but also just play better. And that’s what we did. But it’s been a tough stretch, but I mean, we’re still very much in it. We could get eighth place, we could get higher.”
“You never know, but we’re definitely not done. So this is a big win, and now we just gotta keep taking care of home,” Ogunbowale continued.
Seven games remain on the Wings’ schedule. Dallas hosts the Seattle Storm on Sunday at College Park Center. Tip-off is 3 p.m. CT. The game airs nationally on NBA TV and locally on KFAA.
