ARLINGTON, TEXAS — The Solar dominated the Wings from begin to end en path to a 85-67 win, enhancing to a league-best 12-1 document—and their greatest begin in franchise historical past.
Connecticut jumped out to a double-digit lead within the opening interval, and by no means seemed again, outscoring the Wings by 10 within the first quarter and by 12 within the third quarter. The new begin—the group’s second in a row—was a marked enchancment from the slower begins that plagued them earlier within the season.
“All the time for us, it’s protection—defensive depth,” mentioned Rachel Banham, who scored a team-high 16 factors on 5-for-8 taking pictures off the bench. “Our emphasis has been beginning the sport strongly, and our starters did such job these final two video games—now we have come out and dominated from the soar.”
Alyssa Thomas as soon as once more flirted with a triple-double, ending with 13 factors, 9 rebounds and 9 assists, together with a game-high plus-minus of plus-20. “We have been locked in, consideration to element,” Thomas mentioned. “I believe loads of instances it’s simply us not making pictures early, they usually’re making pictures. At this time was only a good day for us.” Brionna Jones added 12 factors, eight rebounds and three steals, Ty Harris completed with 10 factors and 4 assists, and DeWanna Bonner had eight factors and eight rebounds.
The win marks the group’s third-consecutive victory since they suffered their first lack of the season by the hands of the Liberty on June 8. The Solar at the moment are 5-0 on the highway—the one group within the WNBA with an undefeated away document. “I’m pleased with our group,” Solar head coach Stephanie White mentioned. “Any time you go on the highway, it’s robust. It’s robust to win on the highway. It’s robust to win towards these actually good groups on this league, and Dallas is a kind of actually good groups.”
DiJonai Carrington units the tone defensively
As she’s been all yr, DiJonai Carrington was dominant defensively, serving to maintain Wings All-Star Arike Ogunbowale to 11 factors on 2-for-15 taking pictures. Carrington has routinely stifled opposing stars this season, whether or not that’s Caitlin Clark, Ogunbowale, or one other high-scoring guard.
“She alters the sport for us due to her defensive effort and vitality,” White mentioned of Carrington. “It’s quite a bit to must all the time guard the opponent’s greatest perimeter participant. You don’t get performs off, you don’t get possessions off. For her, establishing herself with what she did on the defensive finish right this moment was large for us.”
On the similar time, Carrington was additionally main contributor on the offensive finish, ending with 15 factors on 5-for-10 taking pictures. She’s now averaging 12.5 factors per recreation on 41.7 p.c taking pictures on the season, each profession highs. “She is so good at getting out of transition,” White mentioned. “She’s so good off of the ball, together with her reducing and making herself out there. She’s been instrumental in our begin this yr, and her consistency has been terrific.”
The Solar bench is settling in
On Saturday, Banham led the Solar with 16 factors, her highest-scoring recreation of the season. That efficiency got here simply days after back-to-back double-digit scoring performances for fellow bench participant Tiffany Mitchell, who had 12 factors towards the Liberty on Saturday and 10 factors towards the Fever on Monday.
“I believe we’re nonetheless looking for our rhythm at instances—simply being part of totally different teams and discovering the place we match,” Banham mentioned of her and Mitchell’s acclimation. “However I believe the employees and the gamers that we’re with are actually serving to put us in positions the place we have to be.”
“We’re placing Tiff in spots the place she will drive, areas the place I can get pictures off for enjoying the two-man,” Banham mentioned. “I believe we’re slowly beginning to determine for our bench, as a result of on the finish of the day now we have to have the ability to assist them our after they want relaxation, and they should sit on the bench a bit of. I really feel like we’re slowly figuring it out, however I believe that we nonetheless have extra to offer.”
Regardless of the dominant 12-1 document, the Solar nonetheless don’t consider they’re taking part in their greatest basketball. “For us, it’s about simply persevering with to stack days to be probably the most constant, greatest group that we may be,” White mentioned. “We haven’t actually put collectively a 4 a full 40-minute recreation but. That’s our objective.”
