Natasha Howard and Olivia Miles scored 21 points apiece and combined on several key plays down the stretch as the league-leading Minnesota Lynx defeated the Dallas Wings 85-77 on Sunday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve notched her 379th career regular-season victory to match Mike Thibault (2003-22) for the league record. Reeve, in her 17th season as a head coach, can break the mark Friday when Minnesota visits the New York Liberty.
The Lynx (15-4) led for all but the opening minutes, building a 16-point advantage at halftime that grew to 58-35 midway through the third quarter. Dallas fought back to within 10 points via a late third-quarter run and culled its deficit to 73-69 on a cutting layup by Paige Bueckers with 5:15 to play.
But that’s as close as the Wings would get. Minnesota rebuilt its lead to 10 points after a layup by Howard with 2:31 left. Another Howard layup off a pretty dish from Miles with 1:02 remaining made it 85-74 and the Lynx held on for their fifth win in their past six games.
Minnesota has taken the first three games from the Wings this season and built its winning streak to seven games against Dallas over the past two seasons.
Howard also grabbed 14 rebounds while Miles had eight assists. Kayla McBride added 17 points for Minnesota and Courtney Williams scored 12.
Bueckers had a game-high 25 points for Dallas (11-8), which dropped its second straight game. Azzi Fudd added 21 points, Maddy Siegrist hit for 12 and Jessica Shepard grabbed 16 rebounds.
The Lynx took charge early, scoring seven straight points after an early Dallas bucket. Minnesota ran off the final eight points of the quarter to forge a 28-16 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The Wings tried to shoot their way back into the game but went 4 for 19 from the floor and missed nine of their final 10 shots of the period and find themselves down 45-29 at the break. The Lynx went 9 for 17 from beyond the arc in the half as opposed to a 1-of-14 showing for Dallas.
McBride led all scorers with 12 points before halftime while Williams added 10 for the Lynx. Bueckers paced Dallas with 10 points in the first half and Shepard grabbed 11 rebounds for the Wings over the first 20 minutes of action.
The Lynx expanded the margin to 23 points when Miles hit a driving layup with 5:31 to play in the third period. But Dallas swung back, finally finding its stride with a 19-6 run to end the quarter to draw to within 64-54 heading into the final 10 minutes.
–Field Level Media
