Wings vs. Mercury: Paige Bueckers Scores 26 as Dallas Holds Off Phoenix 87-82 for Sixth Straight Win

Paige Bueckers did not wait for crunch time to take over on Saturday afternoon. She did it before halftime, scoring 20 points in the first two quarters and capping the half with the kind of shot that makes highlight editors cancel their weekend plans: a banked-in 3-pointer through contact with half a second on the clock.

That bucket sent Dallas into the locker room up 56-49, and the Wings had just enough left to hold off a stubborn Phoenix Mercury team, 87-82, at College Park Center. Bueckers finished with 26 points, Arike Ogunbowale added 22 points and six assists, and Dallas pushed its winning streak to six games in its final regular-season home game.

Phoenix Landed the First Punch

The Mercury came out sharp, opening on an 8-2 run, and they led 24-19 after the first quarter. Bueckers accounted for 11 of the Wings' 19 points in the period, according to the team, while the rest of the roster struggled to buy a basket.

The second quarter was a different movie. Dallas poured in 37 points in the frame, which the team said was its second-highest second-quarter total in franchise history. Maddy Siegrist and Awak Kuier opened the period with back-to-back 3s, per the team, and a 15-4 Dallas run later flipped a 37-30 deficit into a 45-41 lead. Ogunbowale scored 10 of her 22 in the quarter, and Bueckers kept drilling from distance, making four of her five first-half attempts from beyond the arc. Her bank shot with 0.5 seconds left was part of an 8-0 Dallas run that straddled halftime and pushed the lead to 58-49 early in the third. She missed the free throw, but nobody was holding that against her.

The Mercury Would Not Go Away

Dallas went cold after the break, scoring just 12 points in the third quarter, and Phoenix clawed back to tie it 60-60. The Wings answered with eight straight to go up 68-60, but the Mercury closed the period with an and-one and a technical free throw to make it 68-64 heading to the fourth.

Then came a final quarter that felt like a tennis rally. Dallas went up 77-69 on a Jessica Shepard jumper with 4:27 left, and Phoenix answered with a 7-1 surge. A Noemie Brochant 3 and back-to-back buckets from Natasha Mack trimmed it to 78-76. Ogunbowale hit a fadeaway, Sami Whitcomb drained a 3 to make it 80-79, and suddenly it was a one-point game.

Bueckers broke the tension with a 28-foot step-back 3 with 2:00 left for an 83-79 lead. Mack scored again, but Ogunbowale drew contact on a drive and finished the three-point play with 1:19 to go, making it 86-81. Aziaha James made a key steal down the stretch, Lexi Held split a pair of free throws, and Bueckers made one of two with 9.7 seconds left to seal it.

Bueckers and Ogunbowale, Again

Bueckers finished 10 of 19 from the field and 5 of 9 from deep, with five assists, four rebounds and three steals. It was her 24th game of 20 or more points this season, which the AP said ranks fourth in the WNBA. The Wings added that her 1,514 career points are the most by any player through her first two seasons in league history.

Ogunbowale played 37 minutes, scored 22 on 8-of-14 shooting, handed out six assists and did not commit a single turnover, though she also picked up five fouls. Kuier was perfect at 4 for 4 for 11 points, Shepard had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists, and James collected a career-high five steals, per the team. Dallas committed only nine turnovers to Phoenix's 14, and the Wings won the fast-break battle 19-9. Dallas also came up with 10 steals, and the team said it is now 5-1 this season when it reaches double digits in that category.

Thomas Did Her Thing in a Loss

Alyssa Thomas was spectacular for Phoenix: 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. The AP said it was her 23rd career triple-double and fourth of the season. Lexi Held scored 21 and hit 4 of 5 from deep, and Mack added 16 on 7-of-11 shooting, including three field goals in the final 3:30. Brochant had a rough afternoon at 3 of 12, and Whitcomb went 1 of 7.

The Mercury won the paint 28-26 and outrebounded Dallas 35-32, but they turned it over too often and could not get the stop they needed in the final two minutes.

The Turning Point

Bueckers' step-back 3 with two minutes left. Phoenix had chopped an eight-point deficit down to one, and the momentum was wearing purple. One swish from 28 feet, and Dallas had control again.

Stats That Matter

• 37: Dallas' second-quarter points.
• 19-9: The Wings' fast-break edge.
• 9 to 14: Dallas' turnovers compared with Phoenix's.
• 5 of 9: Bueckers from 3-point range.

What It Means

Dallas improved to 26-16 overall and 16-6 at home, and the six straight wins tie the longest winning streak in franchise history, a mark the team said it first set earlier this season. Per the AP, the victory moved the Wings past New York and Washington into sixth place in the standings, and the team said it also clinched the season series over Phoenix.

There is a bigger-picture number here, too. The Wings said coach Jose Fernandez's 16-win jump from last season's 10-34 record is the largest improvement by a first-year head coach in WNBA history.

Phoenix fell to 15-27 overall and 9-13 on the road. The two teams see each other again Monday in Phoenix, so the Mercury will not have to wait long for a rematch.

Closing Take

Bueckers is only in her second season, and she is already doing math that makes the record keepers sweat. Twenty in a half, a banked 3 with half a second left, a dagger step-back with the game on the line. It is the Fast & Furious approach to basketball: ignore physics, keep the engine running, and never apologize for the stunts. Six straight wins says the formula is working.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Records as reported by the Associated Press and the Dallas Wings.