Wings vs. Aces: Jessica Shepard Posts First 22-20-10 Stat Line in WNBA History in 95-87 Comeback

The pass that finished it looked routine. With 2:57 left, Jessica Shepard found Awak Kuier for a 3 that made it 90-81, and with that one dish she owned her second triple-double in eight days and a stat line the WNBA had never seen.

The Dallas Wings climbed out of a 13-point hole against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and won 95-87 on Thursday night at College Park Center. Shepard's final tally was 22 points, 10 assists and a career-high 20 rebounds, and the team says nobody in WNBA history had recorded at least 22, 20 and 10 in one game. Oh, and the No. 1 pick got her first start and scored 22, which on most nights would be the entire story.

Thirteen Down, Then the Third Quarter Happened

Dallas rolled out a new starting five with Azzi Fudd and Maddy Siegrist, and it worked for about six minutes. Siegrist, playing her 100th career game and making her first start of the season, had six of the Wings' first 13 points for a 13-9 lead.

Then Las Vegas took over. The Aces closed the first quarter on an 11-4 run to lead 26-21, and Chennedy Carter had 12 of her 14 before halftime as the Aces' reserves outscored Dallas' 23-8 in the half. An 8-0 burst in the second made it 48-36, and the lead hit 13 at 53-40 before Dallas scored the last five points of the half to trail 53-45.

The Aces were still up 67-59 in the third when the Wings finally found a gear. A 13-5 spurt wiped out all of it, ending with Shepard in the lane for the basket that made it 72-72 just before the horn. She opened the fourth with a baseline bucket for a 74-72 lead, Dallas' first since 17-16. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus answered with a 3, but Kuier's 3 and a Fudd floater made it 79-75, and Las Vegas never got back in front.

The Stat Line Nobody Had Seen

Shepard's 38 minutes were a seminar on doing everything at once. She shot 8-of-13, went 6-for-6 at the line, scored 11 in the third and took 16 of her 20 rebounds off the defensive glass. The Wings say she's the first player in the league with 20 rebounds in a game this season, and only the second in Wings history to reach 20 in a regular-season game, after Glory Johnson's 22 on July 5, 2016. It also made five straight games of at least a double-double for her, which ties Teaira McCowan and Johnson for the fourth-longest such run in Wings history.

Fudd did not look like someone starting for the first time. The top pick in April's draft scored 22 on 9-of-15 shooting with three 3s, including eight points on 3-for-3 shooting in the third, and finished plus-15. That followed the 24 she scored as a reserve against New York on Sunday. Per the team, she's the only rookie this season with 20-plus in back-to-back wins.

Paige Bueckers added 20 points, six assists and two blocks for her fifth 20-point game of the season, and Kuier gave Dallas 12 in just 21 minutes, eight of them in the fourth. All of this came with Arike Ogunbowale limited to 18 minutes and one point by an illness.

For Las Vegas, A'ja Wilson scored 21 but needed 24 shots to get there, her sixth straight 20-point game and not much of a consolation. Jackie Young had 15 on 7-of-20, and her first bucket was a small event of its own: by the Aces' count, she had been 0-for-21 since a May 15 game at Connecticut. Chelsea Gray dished eight assists but shot 2-for-10, and NaLyssa Smith pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds.

The Fourth-Quarter Freeze

Las Vegas made 50% of its shots through three quarters. In the fourth, it went 6-for-22. That is the game in one line.

While the Aces clanked, Dallas turned an 85-81 lead into a 93-81 lead with eight straight points in 92 seconds: a Kuier layup, the Kuier 3 off Shepard's history-making assist, then Bueckers from 25 feet with 1:59 left. Jewell Loyd, Wilson and Smith cut it to 93-87 late, but the clock had already made its decision.

Stats That Matter

• Free throws: Dallas 19-of-22, Las Vegas 7-of-12. That is a 12-point gap in an eight-point game.
• Shot volume: Las Vegas 36-of-82, Dallas 33-of-67. The Aces took 15 more shots, made three more and still lost, because the Wings shot 49% to their 44% and hit two more 3s.
• Second half: Dallas 50, Las Vegas 34. The Wings shot 52.9% after the break while the Aces fell to 35.7%.
• Rebounds: Dallas 39, Las Vegas 33. A season high for the Wings, and Shepard had more than half of them.
• The ones that lied: Las Vegas won the turnover count 5-10, points off turnovers 12-7, the paint 48-38 and the bench 32-22. Do all of that and you usually win. Usually.

Dallas Finally Solves Las Vegas

The Wings move to 5-3 with back-to-back wins and a 2-2 home record, and they finally beat the Aces for the first time since Aug. 27, 2024. Dallas dropped five straight to Las Vegas last season, so this one came with some interest attached.

Las Vegas drops to 4-3 and has now lost two straight. It was also the Aces' first road loss of the season after four straight wins away from home, which stings a little more with the trip continuing at Golden State on Sunday. Dallas gets Seattle at home on Monday.

Top Billing, Stolen Scene

Fudd walked into her first start with the kind of billing a No. 1 pick gets. She scored 22, played 38 minutes, helped run down a 13-point deficit against the champs and still finished as the second-most interesting Wing in the building.

That is no knock on the rookie. That is what happens when a teammate drops a line so strange it needs its own entry in the record book. The rookie had her name above the title on Thursday. The forward next to her walked off with the Oscar.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press. Team notes from the Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces.