WNBA playoffs winners and losers: Wings' Arike Ogunbowale wows with playoff-record 45 points to force Game 3 — SkimNews
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- Arike Ogunbowale scored 45 points — the most ever in a WNBA playoff game — to power the Dallas Wings to a 108-100 overtime win over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 2, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3 on Friday in San Francisco (12 of 23 FG, 5 of 8 from three, 16 of 18 FT).
- Ogunbowale buried a game-tying corner three in regulation to force overtime — a shot the column compared to her NCAA title-winning trey at Notre Dame — after a season in which she ceded the franchise's top role to Paige Bueckers and opened the year shooting 33.8%.
- The Atlanta Dream beat the Washington Mystics 93-75 in Game 2 to complete a first-round sweep and advance to the semifinals, where they will face the New York Liberty with home-court advantage after New York's upset of the Lynx.
- The Dream's sweep was their first multi-game playoff series win since 2013, when they last reached the Finals; Allisha Gray led with 22 points and four steals, while Angel Reese bounced back from a 4-of-15 playoff debut with 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
- The officiating in the Dream-Mystics game drew the column's "loser" label: 27 fouls on Washington and 26 on Atlanta, 14 players with at least three fouls (every starter on both sides), Rhyne Howard fouling out, and only four stretches of two-plus minutes without a whistle.
Why it matters: Ogunbowale's record 45-point night — coming a year after she shot 36.4% and faced real questions about her Dallas future — turns a likely first-round exit into a Game 3 road trip for the expansion Valkyries, while Atlanta ends a 13-year multi-game playoff series drought and earns home court against a Liberty team they beat twice to close the regular season.
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