Napheesa Collier amassed 28 points and 10 rebounds and Kayla McBride added 21 points as the Minnesota Lynx shrugged off a ragged third quarter to roll past the hapless Dallas Wings 81-65 on Sunday afternoon in a Commissioner’s Cup contest in Arlington, Texas.
The Lynx are a perfect 3-0 in the battle for the Commissioner’s Cup, the WNBA’s in-season tournament. Dallas has dropped its first three games in the competition.
Sunday’s game was one between the best and worst teams in the Western Conference. Minnesota improved to 9-0 and has forged its third-best start in team history; the Wings, meanwhile, are 1-9, have lost five straight and are at the bottom of the league standings.
Minnesota, behind by a barrage of 3-pointers by McBride, led by as many as 17 points in the first half before settling for a 46-39 advantage at halftime.
Dallas roared back to within a point heading into the fourth quarter. Collier took charge early in the final period, scoring the first five points (both off assists by Courtney Williams) to push the advantage to 62-56, and the Wings never threatened again.
Collier recorded a double-double in her fifth straight game. Williams had eight assists for Minnesota.
Arike Ogunbowale led the Wings with 26 points, with Maddy Siegrist adding 15 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. Dallas played its fourth straight game without star rookie guard Paige Bueckers and point guard Tyasha Harris; Bueckers was cleared from concussion protocol, according to the Wings, but missed Sunday with an unrelated illness.
Minnesota led 24-14 after 10 minutes of play. Collier’s fadeaway jumper three minutes into the second quarter expanded the Lynx’s lead to 32-19. Dallas got a 3-pointer from Ogunbowale at the 5:49 mark of the period to draw to within 10 points, but McBride canned back-to-back threes.
The Wings answered, scoring 12 of the final 14 points of the half to make it 46-39 at the break.
Ogunbowale led all scorers with 20 points before halftime — four more points than she scored in her past two games combined.
McBride’s 16 points in the half came on the strength of 5-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, while Collier added 14 points over the first two quarters for the Lynx.
Dallas turned up its defense in the third quarter, holding the Lynx to 11 points while trimming its deficit to just 57-56 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
–Field Level Media
