Photo by Markus Spiske
The Phoenix Mercury earned their sixth win of the season on Sunday with a tough 97-90 double-overtime victory over the Dallas Wings.
The leading scorer for the Mercury in the win was Kahleah Copper, who scored 29 points.
Two other Phoenix players who scored in double-digits were Brittney Griner (24), and Diana Taurasi (20).
The leading scorer for Dallas in the game was Arike Ogunbowale, who scored 25 points.
The Mercury had the advantage in multiple categories in the game, which included fast-break points (12-11), turnovers (22-23), and blocks (5-3).
Phoenix also had the advantage over the Wings at the three-point line as the team shot 27.3 (9-33) and Dallas shot 26.1(6-23). The Mercury also bested the Wings at the foul line, with the team shooting 73.7 (14-19) and Dallas shooting 71.4 (10-14).
Game Recap:
The game all tied at 14 at the end of the first quarter.
In the first four minutes and 88 seconds of this matchup, Phoenix would take a 7-4 lead with 7:04 left in the opening quarter.
Brittney Griner played a key part in getting the Mercury the lead, scoring two points, two assists, and one rebound.
The Wings would respond by outscoring Phoenix 10-7 to end the first quarter with the score being tied at 14.
Maddy Siegrist led Dallas in points during that time, scoring four points. Arike Ogunbowale was a heavy contributor during the run, scoring two points, two assists, and one rebound.
Phoenix leads by three points at the end of the first half.
Dallas came out slugging in the early minutes of the second quarter, as the team dashed out to a 12-7 run to give them a 26-21 edge with 4:27 remaining in the first half.
Sevgi Uzun and Maddy Siegrist led the charge, scoring eight of the team’s 12 points.
Seventeen seconds later, the Mercury would answer back by outscoring the Wings 14-6 to head into halftime with a 35-32 edge.
Brittney Griner took charge on this run, scoring six of the team’s 14 points.
The Mercury leads by two points at the end of the third quarter.
The Wings would fly off to a 16-5 run in the early minutes of the second half, as the team would grab a 48-40 lead with six minutes left in the third.
Arike Ogunbowale had the hot hand during this time scoring seven of the team’s 16 points, collecting one rebound, and had three assists.
A minute and 45 seconds later, Phoenix would punch back by going on a 16-6 run to end the third with a 56-54 advantage.
Brittney Griner and Sophie Cunningham would be a force during this time, scoring ten of the team’s 16 points.
The Mercury’s Griner sends the game into overtime.
Fast forward to the 7:16 minute mark in the fourth quarter, where Natasha Mack would get a layup to go in to push the Mercury’s edge to four points (63-59).
Starting at the 6:51 minute mark, the Wings would blast off on a 13-6 run to take a 72-69 lead with 2:51 remaining in the game.
Maddy Siegrist, Monique Billings, and Arike Ogunbowale would cause problems for Phoenix’s defense during that time, scoring ten of the 13 points.
Shortly after that, the legendary duo of Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi would score the next four points for the Mercury to give their team a 73-72 edge with 2:14 left in the fourth.
Then in the next couple of minutes, the lead would bounce back and forth between the two teams where Dallas would Monique Billings would give her team a 78-76 advantage with a layup during the end of that stretch.
Brittney Griner would hit the game-tying shot at the 33.1-second mark, which sent this game into overtime at 78.
One overtime isn’t enough, as McCowan sends into double OT.
In the early minutes of the first overtime, Dallas would grab an 81-78 lead with 3:31 left in the game.
The Mercury would follow that up with Diana Taurasi’s two-pointer and then Natasha Cloud drained a three-point shot to give their team an 83-81 edge with 2:33 left in the game.
84 seconds later, Arike Ogunbowale would come up clutch hitting a 17-foot floating jump shot to tie the game at 83 with 1:49 remaining in overtime.
Then at the 21.1-second mark, Brittney Griner drained another critical late-game shot to give Phoenix an 85-83 advantage.
But the Wings would have the last laugh, as Teaira McCowan would get a two-point shot to go in to push the game into a second overtime with the score tied at 85.
Phoenix takes home a 97-90 double-overtime victory.
The second overtime was when Kahleah Copper shined, scoring eight of the team’s 12 points to guide them to a 97-90 win over Dallas.
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