Angel Reese grabbed a WNBA-record 26 rebounds and the Atlanta Dream completed a perfect West Coast road trip with a 78-71 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks on Monday.
Earlier in the game, Reese broke the WNBA single-season rebound mark with her 452nd board of the campaign. She finished the night with 458 rebounds on the season. Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson set the previous mark in 2024.
Reese broke Chamique Holdsclaw’s record of 24 rebounds set in 2003 and added 11 points for her 27th double-double of the season as Atlanta won at Los Angeles for the second time in five days.
Allisha Gray scored 20 points, Rhyne Howard added 18 and Naz Hillmon had 12 for the Dream (25-13), who went 4-0 on their road trip and moved within a half-game of third place in the league with six regular-season games remaining.
Nneka Ogwumike scored a season-high 27 points and pulled down 16 rebounds and Cameron Brink had 15 points with five blocks off the bench as the Sparks (13-25) lost for the seventh time in eight games. Los Angeles was eliminated from playoff contention with its loss to Atlanta on Thursday.
Dearica Hamby also had 15 points for the Sparks, who were without their third-leading scorer, guard Rae Burrell (illness).
Los Angeles picked up its defensive intensity in its second game against Atlanta during a four-game homestand. The Dream scored a franchise-high 124 points against the Sparks last week but were nowhere near that total Monday while shooting 40.0% from the floor.
The Dream led 20-15 after one quarter before the Sparks went up by as many as six points in the second quarter and took a 37-36 lead into halftime. Ogwumike led all scorers in the first half with 12 points.
Atlanta grabbed control in the third quarter behind nine points from Gray and took a 62-55 lead into the final period.
The Dream took their first double-digit lead at 66-55 with 9:05 remaining on a layup from Jordin Canada and were never threatened over the final 10 minutes.
The victory gave Atlanta a perfect 3-0 record against Los Angeles this season.
–Field Level Media
