Wings vs. Sky: Li Yueru's Free Throws Finish a 36-Point Fourth Quarter as Dallas Steals a 93-92 Win

Dallas led this game for 12.5 seconds. That is the entire list. Li Yueru stepped to the free-throw line in the final moments of a game the Wings had spent all night chasing, made both, and College Park Center lost its collective mind.

The Dallas Wings beat the Chicago Sky 93-92 on Saturday night in Arlington, finishing a comeback built on a season-high 36 fourth-quarter points. Chicago had led by as many as 17 and was up 92-86 with 35.7 seconds left. Read that last part again.

Chicago Had This Under Control, Until It Did Not

The Sky were outstanding for three quarters. They shut Dallas out in the paint in the opening period, winning that battle 20-0 on the way to a 28-16 lead, with a 10-0 run from a 6-6 tie doing most of the early damage. Dallas scored eight straight early in the second, trimmed it to 43-38 by halftime and looked like it had absorbed the worst of it.

It had not. Chicago came out and won the third quarter 28-19, including eight in a row that made it 59-46, and the Sky took a 71-57 lead into the fourth. They still led 81-71 with 4:58 left. Then the Wings scored nine straight in barely more than a minute and a half, with Jessica Shepard's layup and two free throws bringing them to 81-80. The Sky kept responding, and that was the maddening part for them: Skylar Diggins scored, Kamilla Cardoso scored, Sydney Taylor hit a 24-footer for an 89-86 lead with 1:26 to go. Every Dallas surge met an answer. Right up until the answers ran out.

Paige Bueckers Takes the Wheel

Bueckers finished with 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and her fourth quarter was the kind that makes you forget the 7-of-16 shooting line. She scored 10 of the 11 Dallas points in one stretch of the rally, going to the rim for three layups and then dropping the biggest shot of the night. For a stretch of about two minutes, the Wings' offense was simply her deciding where she wanted to go, and Chicago having no answer for it.

Shepard was the steady hand underneath, scoring 21 points, 17 of them after halftime, while grabbing eight rebounds and dishing three assists. Rookie Azzi Fudd added 13 points and swatted four shots, Arike Ogunbowale made three of her five 3s for 12 points, and Maddy Siegrist came off the bench for nine in 12 minutes and finished plus-13, the best number on either side. Li finished with just five points and six rebounds in 15 minutes, but two of those points are the only ones anyone in Dallas will remember.

Cardoso was terrific for Chicago, finishing with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting, one short of her career high, plus nine rebounds and two blocks. Rookie Sydney Taylor scored 18 before fouling out, and Cardoso also finished with six fouls. Diggins had 14 points and six assists, Natasha Cloud added 10 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Azura Stevens grabbed 11 rebounds despite a 3-of-11 night from the floor. Chicago scored 28 in the first and 28 in the third, then 21 in the fourth, which should have been plenty, except for the other team's 36.

It also got thin for Dallas in a hurry. Awak Kuier finished with six fouls in just 14 minutes, so the Wings leaned on 34 minutes from Shepard and 15 useful ones from Li. Sug Sutton and Aziaha James added eight more between them off the bench.

The Turning Point: Seven Straight in 23 Seconds

Diggins made it 92-86 with two free throws at the 35.7 mark, and that should have been the ballgame. Fudd hit a free throw at that same mark. Five seconds later, Bueckers buried a 25-foot 3 and got fouled, and the free throw completed a four-point play that cut it to 92-91. In the space of a single television replay, a six-point lead had become one.

Then came Li's two free throws with 12.5 seconds left, and Dallas' first lead of the entire night. Chicago did not score again. Getting outscored 7-0 over the final 35 seconds is hard enough to stomach on its own. Doing it after leading for almost every second of the game is the sort of thing that keeps a coaching staff up all night.

Stats That Matter

• 36-21: The fourth-quarter score, with Dallas' 36 a season high.
• 19-of-29: Chicago at the free-throw line, leaving 10 points out there in a one-point loss. Dallas went 17-of-21.
• 25-18: Dallas' edge in points off turnovers, even with the teams nearly even at 15 and 14 giveaways.
• 7 blocks: The Wings' total, with Fudd accounting for four of them.
• 48-38: Chicago's edge in the paint, which ended up mattering much less than it seemed to after that first quarter.

What It Means

The Wings are 10-6, 6-2 at home, and winners of six straight on their own floor. They also matched their win total from last season, and it is June 20. Dallas has now beaten Chicago twice, after a 99-89 win on May 20, and heads to Seattle for a Monday game.

The Sky are 4-11, 3-5 on the road, and have lost five straight and 10 of their last 11. This was also their second consecutive one-point defeat, following a 96-95 home loss to New York on Wednesday. There is a version of this week where Chicago wins two straight and feels great about itself. Instead, it travels to Connecticut on Monday still looking for answers.

The Twist You Saw Coming Too Late

M. Night Shyamalan built a career on endings that make you rewatch everything that came before them. Chicago will be doing plenty of that on the plane: the 17-point lead, the 10 missed free throws, the 25-footer with the whistle. Dallas never led until the last 12.5 seconds, and the only ones who will care about that are the people who lost.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.