ARLINGTON, Texas — Paige Bueckers went 6-of-6 from 3-point range on Sunday afternoon, tying the WNBA record for the most 3-pointers made in a game without a miss.
The Dallas Wings beat the Seattle Storm 92-70 in front of a sellout crowd of 6,251 at College Park Center. Dallas (22-16) has won 22 games this season, matching the most the franchise has won in a year since it relocated to North Texas ahead of the 2016 season.
Bueckers shot 12-of-16 for a game-high 32 points. She had 18 of them by the end of the first quarter and 23 by halftime, then sat the fourth. In 26 minutes she also had 4 rebounds and 4 assists. It was the fifth 30-point game of her career. That ranks third in Wings history, according to the team.
Jessica Shepard finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists. The double-double was her 21st of the season, pushing the Wings single-season record she already owns. Her 11th rebound took her past 400 for the year. It took 36 games, the fastest any Wings player has reached the mark.
Seattle (7-31) has lost three straight and 14 of its last 15. Flau’jae Johnson led the Storm with 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting and went 5-of-10 from 3-point range to match her career high for 3-pointers in a game. Jade Melbourne scored 15 points, and Dominique Malonga added 12.
Paige Bueckers Scores 18 in the First Quarter
Dallas opened on an 11-0 run over the first three minutes. Bueckers had 8 of those points on 3-pointers from 25 and 26 feet and an 18-foot pull-up, and Awak Kuier hit the other one from 24 feet. Seattle called timeout with 7:19 left in the quarter and called another at 3:15 with Dallas ahead 22-8.
Over those opening 10 minutes, Bueckers shot 7-of-8 from the floor and 4-of-4 from 3-point range. Her 18 points matched the Wings record for points in a first quarter and were the most by a Dallas player in any quarter since 2024, according to the team. Bueckers outscored Seattle on her own in the period, 18-17.
As a team the Wings scored 34 points in the quarter and went 6-of-8 from 3-point range. Neither number has been higher in a Dallas first quarter since the 2024 season. Across those 10 minutes Dallas shot 60% from the field and 75% from 3-point range, plus 80% at the free-throw line. The 17-point lead was the second-largest the Wings have taken out of a first quarter. The record is 19, against Washington on June 28, 2025.
Bueckers made her fifth 3-pointer in the second quarter to finish the half 5-of-5, matching the best 3-point shooting half in team history. Her sixth came with 4:29 left in the third quarter. Tamika Catchings in 2002, Maya Moore in 2011, Kristi Toliver in 2012, and Stefanie Dolson in 2024 are the only other players in WNBA history to go 6-of-6 from 3-point range in a game. Dolson played 11 minutes for Seattle on Sunday and missed her only shot.
The extra shooting work happens before or after practice for Bueckers, who got a session in the day before Sunday’s game.
“Just reps. A lot of working out. Me and D.A. did a workout yesterday before practice,” Bueckers said. “Just see the ball go through and get some reps up. It’s hard to practice and work out a lot during the season. But when you get time to put in work before or after practice and just see the ball go through, get reps up, it builds your confidence. And just my teammates and the coaching staff believing in me and a whole lot of people helping me put in that work.”
Dallas Wings Lead by 35 Before Seattle Storm Close the Half
In the second quarter alone, Arike Ogunbowale assisted on 4 Dallas baskets. Her 6 for the game led everyone on the floor. With 4:02 left in the half, Bueckers hit a 3-pointer off an Ogunbowale feed for a 56-21 lead. Dallas got no bigger than that all afternoon.
Dallas did not score again before the break, and Seattle closed the half on a 14-0 run to trail 56-35. Zia Cooke assisted on 3 baskets during the stretch and closed the half with 2 free throws.
The Wings shot 53.8% from the field and 52.9% from 3-point range in the first half. Seattle turned the ball over 8 times before the break, and Dallas scored 13 points off those possessions.
Dallas got stops on its first five possessions of the game, which Wings coach José Fernández said is what set up how the offense played from there.
“Good connectivity, a strong start on offense. We thought we played well for the first 17 minutes, and then we had slippage to end the first half,” Fernández said. “And then just a lot of different people stepping up per usual, and I feel like that’s our identity and what we are as a team. We had great bench minutes, obviously Sug here. But everybody contributed to the win. I thought we defended well. Holding any WNBA team to 70 points is a good night, but also room for growth and things that we can clean up. And there was some slippage. And we let them go on like a 16-2 run at the end of the first half. So stuff that we want to improve at, stuff we want to get better at as a team, but just building from here.”
Jessica Shepard Extends Her Dallas Wings Double-Double Record
Shepard shot 5-of-11 and pulled 10 of her 11 rebounds off the defensive glass. That leaves her at 401 for the season. She came into Sunday averaging 11.1 a game.
Dallas out-rebounded Seattle 40-34 and won the paint 36-26. The fast-break edge was wider, 20-5. Seattle took the second-chance points, 8-3.
Alanna Smith did not miss, going 3-of-3 from the field and 3-of-3 at the line for 9 points and 4 rebounds. Kuier also had 9, with 7 rebounds and 1 block, and finished at plus-21.
The Wings shot 50% from the field for the ninth time this season, going 33-of-66, and made 11 3-pointers for the 12th time this season. Seattle shot 33.8% from the field and 30.8% from 3-point range on 39 attempts.
Dallas was without Azzi Fudd, who will miss the rest of the season with a right knee injury, and Aziaha James, listed with a lower left leg injury. Haley Jones and Christyn Williams were also inactive.
Sug Sutton and the Dallas Wings Bench Score 24
Sug Sutton and Maddy Siegrist scored 9 points apiece to lead a Dallas bench that put up 24. Sutton shot 3-of-6 in nearly 18 minutes and finished at plus-22, the best mark of the game. Siegrist went 4-of-8 with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Sutton came to Dallas out of what she called a really tough situation, and the reception from the crowd has extended to players regardless of whether they get on the floor.
“Just staying in the gym and continue to believe in yourself. I’ve been in the league for five years, so I know what it takes,” Sutton said. “So just continue to believe in the work that I put in. And my teammates have belief in me. The coaches have belief in me. They always say, like, stay ready. So that’s what I have to do every single night. And I just want to continue to help the team as much as I can.”
Shepard, Bueckers, and Ogunbowale all sat the fourth quarter. Sutton and Li Yueru scored 6 points each in the frame and Smith added 5, while Seattle went 3-of-18 from the field for 12 points. The Wings are 7-1 this season when they hold an opponent to 12 points or fewer in a quarter.
Dallas spread the minutes out once the lead reached 35 and played 10 players.
“It was big. But they all want to play. It’d be lying to you if they didn’t want to play. They want to play,” Fernández explained. “But it’s great to have that opportunity and that luxury to be up like that and then get Li minutes and Sug minutes, get some guys that haven’t been a big focal part of rotations given an opportunity to play on both ends of the floor.”
Flau’jae Johnson Leads Seattle Storm With 23 Points
Johnson scored 11 of her 23 points in the third quarter, going 3-of-5 from 3-point range in the period as Seattle cut a 25-point deficit to 15 by the end of it. The Storm shot 5-of-12 from deep in the quarter and scored 6 points off 6 Dallas turnovers.
Dallas held Seattle’s three starting posts to 14 points combined. Awa Fam went 0-of-5 from the field and did not score in 25 minutes, though she pulled down 6 rebounds. Ezi Magbegor missed all 4 of her shots and finished with 2 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Malonga shot 4-of-10 and made all 4 of her free throws.
Johnson said Seattle is missing Natisha Hiedeman, a big part of the offense all season, and that a young roster still has to get better at executing.
“I think we just play into our strengths more. When we do that and we play to our strengths, we took 74 shots. They only took 66 shots. We were 33%. That was 50%,” Johnson said. “So I think the quality of basketball that we played was decent, but we can’t have decent games. We got to have great games on every side, on the offensive side and the defensive side. And it’s not just one player. Jade can’t just, she can guard Paige or whoever she can guard to the best of her ability, but if we don’t have backside, then they’re going to hit the slip and they’re going to do things. So it’s five people being interconnected.”
Hiedeman sat with a left shoulder injury for the second consecutive game. She leads the Storm at 15.4 points per game and has played 36 of Seattle’s 38 games.
Sunday was the second start for Seattle’s front line of Fam, Malonga, and Magbegor alongside Johnson and Melbourne. Melbourne counted a handful of practice reps on top of those two games. Dallas started three bigs of its own in Kuier, Shepard, and Smith, which Melbourne said took away much of what the Storm wanted out of the look.
“For us it came down to communication. Like, we were talking but just not early enough or maybe assertively enough, so that’s something that has been a bit of a common factor for us all year and something we need to continue to work on,” Melbourne said. “But also a lot of their stuff on the offensive end, I think they had 56 points in the first half, came off of mistakes that we made at the offensive end. So they were able to capitalize on our turnovers and stuff like that. So we just know we need to come out better on the front foot. We can’t give up an 11-0 start. And as a group, we just need to regroup, focus on our communication, clean up how we look after the ball, and come out better the next game.”
Seattle’s offense has opened slowly in each of the last two games, and Storm coach Sonia Raman said the shots not falling snowballed into what her team could not do at the defensive end.
“Paige, really special player. Tough cover. We didn’t do a good enough job of executing our coverages and kind of what we were trying to do against her,” Raman said. “But credit to her as well for just making a lot of shots out there. Some of the ones that we needed to be better at and contest, and then some of the ones that were there, and she made some tough ones. But three-level scorer, and obviously we need to do better against her.”
“Flau’jae, really good to see her kind of have that offensive pop back after being back in, after missing a game or two,” Raman continued. “Just kind of getting her legs under her again, and I thought tonight she really showed just being able to get downhill. But then especially the three ball and just kind of finding her spots and just taking what the defense gave her.”
Dallas Wings Match Their North Texas Wins Record
The 2023 Wings went 22-18 and lost in the semifinals, the last Dallas team to reach the postseason. Fernández took over in October 2025 after Dallas finished 10-34, and the roster he inherited had won nine games the year before that.
Dallas is 3-0 against Seattle this season and has clinched the season series, its eighth series win of the year. The teams meet a fourth time on Sept. 23 in Seattle.
Fernández wants Dallas controlling its own destiny instead of watching the rest of the league. A clinch before the break would hand his players time off.
“I couldn’t do it without incredible support from our staff, our support staff, and really the 14 players in that locker room. So it’s very meaningful,” Fernández said. “I knew coming in here was going to be a tough job in a lot of different areas and a lot of different ways. But I think we still have five games to go. If we do what we’re supposed to after the World Cup break, we’ll be talking about getting ready for the playoffs and that’ll be, I think it’s monumental coming off a 10 win season and a 9 win season before that. We wouldn’t have the success if it wasn’t for the individuals in that locker room and the people I’m surrounded with every day.”
Up Next
Dallas can clinch its first postseason berth since 2023 on Tuesday when it hosts the Portland Fire at 7 p.m. CT at College Park Center. The game airs locally on KFAA 29 and nationally on NBA TV.
Seeing teammates get minutes and contribute to winning was the best part of Sunday for Bueckers.
“We want to have the same approach every single game and play every game like it’s a playoff game and play every game like it’s the most important one ahead of us,” Bueckers explained. “So obviously that’s the next one on the schedule. But we can’t play like we’re trying to make the playoffs. We’ve got to play to our identity and to what we want to build on and to what we’ve been this entire season. Obviously the stakes are higher, but once you focus on that, you kind of lose sight of where you are in the present. So just playing each possession like it’s our last and be no different in terms of our approach.”
Dallas closes its pre-break schedule against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 30 and does not play again until Sept. 17. Seattle hosts the Toronto Tempo on Wednesday at 9 p.m. CT.
