The Minnesota Lynx continued their dominance and remained undefeated on Saturday evening as they beat the Dallas Wings, 80-63.
Every starter for the Lynx scored in double figures and Minnesota did a great job all game locking down the Wings from 3-point range, forcing Dallas to go 6-for-26 from beyond-the-arc.
Sylvia Fowles turned in a great game for Minnesota, scoring a team-high 16 points on 7-for-12 from the field, along with seven rebounds, four steals and three blocks. The other part of the Lynx’ frontcourt, Rebekkah Brunson and Maya Moore, pitched in a combined 23 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
“I think we turned them over, I don’t think the numbers that we had in the fourth, but I thought there was a stretch there where we were really getting deflections and turning them over – then we actually cashed in,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I think there were times earlier than that, especially earlier in the game, the first half, that we forced them into turnovers, but we couldn’t cash in.”
Dallas forward Aerial Powers led all scorers with 20 points off the bench on 7-for-19 shooting. Wings’ Guard Karima Christmas and forward Plenette Pierson combined for 26 points and nine rebounds.
“They play a zone-like defense and they are very long almost at every spot,” Powers said. “So, their height and length alone makes their defense a little tougher than most people’s.”
Numbers Game:
15: Saturday night’s game was the fourth consecutive contest in which the Lynx have held their opponent under this many points in the first quarter.
48.6: Minnesota was efficient offensively all night, tallying 25 assists on 34 made field-goals and making this percent of their shots on the night.
18: The Lynx were able to hold the Wings to only 63 points due in large part to their defensive tenacity, causing Dallas to turn the ball over this many times in the game.
“I thought we got some deflections and some good stops out there on defense where we’d really get out and run,” Lynx guard Lindsay Whalen said. “Some of those jumpers that we were taking for a while there, [Seimone] had a couple, I had one or two, Brunson had a really good bank shot in there, I thought it just kind of started flowing. Dallas is a really athletic, really talented team that puts you in a lot of different tough situations, so I credit our defense, credit our execution there in the fourth quarter.”
Leader of the Pack: Sylvia Fowles
The 6’6 center out of Louisiana State University had an extremely effective night for the Lynx as she loaded up the stat sheet with 16 points, seven boards, four steals and three blocks.
Up Next:
Minnesota will remain at home on Tuesday night when they take on the Phoenix Mercury and will look to stay undefeated by recording their eighth straight win to begin the 2016 WNBA season. Tip-off will be at 7:00 p.m., so be sure to have your television set to Fox Sports North Plus, or radios dialed into 106.1 BOB FM.