Dallas Wings Team Notes

 With today’s loss the Wings are now 14-11 and 9-4 at home

 Going into the all-star break, the Wings hold a 14-11 record and are seventh in the WNBA standings

 The 9-4 record inside College Park Center marks as the best record recorded going into the allstar break.

 Against the east, the Wings are 8-3 overall and 5-1 at home.

 The Wings longest run of the game was 9-0.

 Inside the paint the Wings outscored the Sun 42-40 and are now 11-4

 Three Wings players recorded double figures for the day.

Dallas Wings Player Notes

 Liz Cambage recorded her 25th consecutive double figure game ending the night with 25 points.

 This afternoon’s 25 points gives Cambage her 14th 20-point game and 11th double-double of the season.

 Glory Johnson and Kayla Thornton joined Cambage in scoring double figures with 11. The 11 points marked as the seventh double figure game for Johnson and 13th for Thornton.

 Liz Cambage and Allisha Gray both led the team with five assists.

 Off the bench Cayla George led the way for all reserves with five points.

Dallas Wings head coach Fred Williams

(On tonight’s game) “What I put on the board before the game was boxing out and second-chance points. Connecticut is number one in the offensive boards, and we are right behind them at number two. I felt like they were able to capitalize on getting a lot of second-chance points on us. (Connecticut forward Shekinna) Stricklen had an excellent game shooting the three. (Connecticut guard) Courtney Williams had her spurts too, putting the ball up. They had a good perimeter game, their post game too was pretty good at trying to defend (Wings center) Liz (Cambage) inside. They played some balanced basketball defensively.”

(On after the Sun’s fourth quarter time out) “Turnovers. We have to make a smart play when it comes down to the time and score in a transition situation. We were trying to get the ball inside. Everything has got to be aggressive trying to get to the rim, instead of settling for a lot of jump shots.”

(On Cambage’s free throw shooting) “After you get dinged in the arm on the right side for a time, it gets kind of numb. So when you get to that line, it can change the feel a little bit. She knows that she has got to start putting those down and be more of a high-percentage shooter from the line, because she is pretty much going to the line more than any player on the team. Some of them were down on her and she is just playing through a lot of physical play and pain.” Dallas Wings center Liz Cambage

(On the first half of the season) “It’s been up and down. That’s all I can really say right now. We’re going through a bit of a down time. I think it is good we’re going to into a break, so we can mentally refresh and come back hungry.”

(On the team’s last two games) “We can say it’s fatigue, but the whole league is built this way this season. Everyone is feeling it. You can’t use fatigue as an excuse. You’ve got to be ready and you’ve got to be hungry every game.”

Dallas Wings forward Kayla Thronton

(On playing tough competition) “It just shows that we are doing something right. But, like I said, we can’t worry about that. We’ve got to focus on what the Wings are doing. That’s it. It’s good that that people respect us in that sense, and playing their hardest when they come against us. But we’ve got to take care of what we can (take care of).”

(On her All Star break plans) “Rest.”

Head Coach Curt Miller

(On the game and team defensive effort) “I’m really proud. I think we’ve strung multiple games there in a row of defensive execution game plan. We haven’t always had the offense we needed to win, tonight, led by (Shekinna) Stricklen’s eight threes, we shot the ball really well. You know, this league is so much about scheduling, and rest, and we knew this was their fifth game in nine days or fourth game in seven days. So we had to keep the tempo up, and we did that, so that contributes. We did a really good job, you know, Liz (Cambage) is such a dominant force, and we just kept trying to give her different looks, come from different people. I thought we did a good job with our attention to Skylar (Diggins-Smith), made her really work for her stuff. The big thing – one offensive rebound in the second half by them. They didn’t get out in transition much, 10 or 12 points below their average. Big defensive performance for us tonight.”

(On second chance points and the season series with Dallas) “Long shots at times, and jump shots, there were longer rebounds. But our activity, again, a credit to our energy. But again, we got a little bit of a tired Dallas team, without question. We’re not naïve, that played into it a little bit. We’ve got them two more times, this is the unique scheduling part. This is the first time we’ve played Dallas, it’s an important series as we all covet playoff spots, so it’ll be an interesting next two games with them.”

(On team approach for one more game before the all – star break) “This is our tough game now, long travel back, we’re pulling out at 4:30 a.m. to get to the airport to get out of here and get back. Hardly any prep for Washington, who’s an arch-rival and Eastern Conference foe. And you just go from one superstar to the next with Skylar and Liz to, now (Elena) Delle Donne and Kristi Toliver. So, it’s never easy in this league, but we’ll prepare, and it’s a really big game for us momentum-wise heading into break.”

Forward, Shekinna Stricklen

On the game “Overall, we needed this win to stay above .500, I just wanted to come out with energy and I think that’s what I need. I believe our defense, we stayed to the game plan, we helped each other out when needed, we had energy, we rotated, and we didn’t give up. We kept pushing and we made plays at the end when we needed, we hit shots when we needed, we kept them off the offensive board. I mean, that’s their strength, is offense and offensive rebounds, and we were able to hold them off what we usually get. We know (Liz) Cambage is going to get hers, but we battled with her and I think we got her tired down there at the end.”

On posts defending Liz Cambage “Our team, our posts battled, we helped when we needed help, we had each other’s back. And I think also, we just made a run. Our posts ran and got out, we screened her a lot in the offense to make her chase off screens and stuff. So, we kind of wore her down to the end. I mean, we knew she was going to hit baskets, she’s good, but I think our main thing was to get her tired.”

On personal performance “I had my teammates looking for me, and they’re always looking for me, but I think I finally found the rhythm that I’ve been wanting to get into all season. It was great, and I had a lot of family here, so that brought a lot of energy to me also.”

Guard, Courtney Williams

On the game“I think we played well as a team. I think we got our shooters going, our posts got some looks, I got my jumper going. (Jasmine Thomas) got to her spot, so I think, overall, we just had it going.” On keys to holding Dallas to 75 points “I think containing their stars, Skylar (Diggins-Smith) and Liz Cambage. They’re amazing players, so we knew they were going to score, but we just had to contain them. So I think we did a good job of doing that…I think we brought some traps, we just threw different things at them. We just did different things defensively, and that was our game. We knew we weren’t going to just play them one way the whole game, so I think it was our game plan from the beginning.”

On personal performance “I think it was getting to my spots. My jumper was going, my teammates were getting me the ball, so it was just getting to my spots and knocking it down.”