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Sky use balanced attack, dominate fourth quarter to beat Wings 84-73 for season-opening split

By The Associated Press
Published  May 19, 2024 7:54am CDT
Sky
Associated Press

Angel Reese's full press conference at Chicago Sky media day

Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese isn't shying away from her popularity. She talked her trip to the Met Gala and more at Sky's media day Wednesday.

ARLINGTON, Texas - Diamond DeShields led a balanced attack with 16 points and the Chicago Sky dominated the fourth quarter to defeat the Dallas Wings 83-74 on Saturday night to split the season-opening series.

Chicago outscored Dallas 28-11 in the fourth quarter to erase an eight-point deficit, getting contributions from a number of players while Arike Ogunbowale had nine of the 11 Wings' points.

Marina Mabrey, who had all 14 of her points in the second half, got the Sky going with a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter. Elizabeth Williams had back-to-back baskets before Angel Reese had a three-point play for a 67-65 Chicago lead with 6:29 to play.

Reese finished a 14-0 run that made it 72-65 with 4 1/2 minutes left. Ogunbowale had the next nine points for Dallas but Chicago continued to pull away.

On Wednesday in the season opener Ogunbowale scored 14 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Wings, down two with 3:16 to play, scored 14-straight points down the stretch to win 87-79. In that game, Dallas had a 60-42 advantage in points in the paints but in the rematch it was 28-24 for the Sky.

Williams, who had 10 rebounds, six steals and five blocks, Dana Evans and reserve Chennedy Carter all had 12 points for Chicago and Reese had 11 with nine rebounds. Mabrey had nine rebounds, eight assists and five steals.

Ogunbowale finished with 35 points for Dallas and Kalani Brown had 11 off the bench.

The Wings broke away from a 26-26 tie to take a 42-30 lead at the half. The Sky were 1 of 9 behind the line and shot 28% (11 of 39) overall.

Ogunbowale had 10 points in the third quarter to take a 63-55 lead into the fourth quarter.

Dallas was short-handed loosing two starters from the Wednesday win. Natasha Howard played in Wednesday's win with a broken foot and will now miss at least a month while Jaelyn Brown suffered a broken nose that will sideline her for about a week.

The Wings signed Monique Billings to a Hardship Contract and she joined the team on Friday night. She was a last cut of Los Angeles after playing the previous six seasons in Atlanta. Billings play 20 minutes and had five points and four rebounds.