Paige Bueckers scored 32 points, 23 of them in the first half, as the Dallas Wings parlayed a dominating opening 16 minutes of the game into a 92-70 win over the hapless Seattle Storm on Sunday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
Dallas (22-16) led by 35 points six minutes into the second quarter and by 21 at halftime after a late surge by the Storm. Seattle pulled to within 15 points heading into the fourth period before running out of gas and time as the Wings held on to capture their second straight game.
Bueckers went 12 of 16 from the floor and made all six of her 3-point attempts. Jessica Shepard added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Dallas.
Flau’jae Johnson scored 23 points, Jade Melbourne added 15 and Dominique Malonga hit for 12 for the Storm (7-31), who lost their third straight game and fell for the 14th time in their past 15 outings. Seattle has already been eliminated from postseason consideration.
The Wings swamped the visitors from the opening tip behind Bueckers’ torrid start. She scored the game’s first 11 points and helped build a 34-14 lead for Dallas with 14.2 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Bueckers had 18 points in the period, outscoring Seattle by a point on her own while making seven of her eight shots and converting four 3-pointers.
The first six minutes of the second quarter was more of the same as Dallas kept its collective foot on the accelerator. The Wings stoked their advantage to 35 points when Bueckers canned her fifth field goal from beyond the arc with 4:02 to play before halftime but that would be Dallas’s last points of the half. The Storm finished the period on a 14-0 run to draw to within 56-35 at the break.
Bueckers led all players with 23 points in the first half as Dallas outshot the Storm 53.8% to 36.1% despite missing its final six shots of the second quarter. Johnson paced Seattle with 12 points in the half.
The Storm chipped away at their deficit, closing to within 73-58 when Johnson poured in a 3-pointer with 28 seconds to play in the third quarter.
Dallas finished at 50% from the floor (33-of-66), 47.8% from behind the arc (11-of-23) and 88.2% (15-of-17) from the free-throw line.
–Field Level Media
