ARLINGTON, Texas — Rookie forward Azure Stevens scored a career-high 26 points and 6-8 center Liz Cambage added 17 to lead the Dallas Wings past the Indiana Fever, 90-63, at College Park Center.
Dallas, 9-8, closed a three-game homestand with consecutive victories and won for the third time in four games. Indiana fell to 2-17 overall while losing for the second time to the Wings.
Dallas, which led by as many as 24, shot 46 percent overall and commanded an early lead on the strength of a 20-5 rebounding edge late in the first half. The Wings won the rebounding battle overall, 47 to 22, and used 10 unanswered points to break the game open in the third quarter. Dallas’ rebound margin represented the largest ever against the Fever.
“It is difficult to win a basketball game when the rebound margin is -25 on the boards,” said Fever coach Pokey Chatman.
Glory Johnson contributed nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds to lead the Wings’ assault on the backboards. Cambage grabbed nine caroms and Stevens had six.
Added Indiana forward Candice Dupree, “Our defense wasn’t there, [the Wings] beat us on the boards, they turned us over and they scored a lot of points. They had an attack mentality.”
Indiana got 42 of its 63 points from veterans Dupree, Cappie Pondexter and Natalie Achonwa. That trio shot 16-of-31 from the floor while the rest of the Fever team combined for 8-of-37 shooting. Dupree shot 7-of-13 to match a season high with 21 points. Pondexter scored 12 and Achonwa added nine. Pondexter reached double-figure scoring in both games she has played since joining the Fever last Sunday.
Indiana missed its first five shots while falling behind 8-0 in the opening minutes. The Fever responded by shooting 7-of-11 to pull within six at the end of the first quarter, but shooting difficulties re-emerged in the second period as a four-minute drought without a field goal led a 13-2 Dallas run and a 33-16 advantage. The Wings took a 44-32 lead into the intermission.
Highlights