Both the Dallas Wings and Los Angeles Sparks will look to put tough losses behind them when they square off on Wednesday afternoon in a Commissioner's Cup game in Arlington, Texas.
The Wings head home after a 102-93 loss in New York on Sunday that snapped a two-game winning streak. Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas (5-4) with 25 points (13 in the first quarter) while Satou Sabally racked up 17 points and 11 rebounds, Natasha Howard added 14 points and Kalani Brown had 10.
Dallas led by six points at the half but was outscored 34-17 in the third quarter, in which the Liberty made 13 of 17 field-goal attempts.
Part of the Wings' success has been the play of rookie Maddy Siegrist, who has been a real competitor and a "glue" player in her first nine games. Dallas will need all of that to beat the Sparks.
"I don't care if she plays two minutes; I don't care if she plays 11 minutes, 15 minutes -- she is going to be ready," Wings coach Latricia Trammell said. "She knows that she's a rookie, but she already has impacted our team and our game, and she's going to continue to be a great professional player."
The Sparks (4-4) travel south after a 91-86 loss at Minnesota on Sunday in which they coughed up an 11-point lead in the final 3:38 of the game. Los Angeles was up 83-72 after a 3-pointer by Lexie Brown but scored just three points the rest of the way as Minnesota rang up a 17-0 run, aided by four Sparks turnovers.
Nneka Ogwumike scored 27 points to pace the Sparks, with Brown adding 21 and Jordin Canada tallying 18 points. Los Angeles was outrebounded 38-26 and had just two offensive boards in the loss.
Ogwumike expects her team to bounce back as the new-look Sparks acclimate to coach Curt Miller.
"We all fight in our own ways, and I think there's also an aspect to us that we have a standard that we want to uphold," Ogwumike said. "So keeping ourselves up in a way that allows us the grace to make mistakes but also understand our value (is important)."
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