Dallas Wings Team Notes

 The Wings are now 10-8 for the season and 4-5.

 Against the Liberty, the Wings have tied the series and are 1-1 for the season.

 Against all east conference opponents, the Wings are now 6-1.

 The Wings led by as much as 12.  For the second time this season, the entire wings roster has scored in the game.

 The Wings led by as much as 23 points for the afternoon.

 The Wings ended the day with 39 total rebounds, recording the most on the defensive end with 31.

 Out of the 18 games played this season, the Wings have recorded 30 or more boards in 17 games.

 Four Wings recorded double figures for the day.

Dallas Wings Player Notes

 Skylar Diggins-Smith led all scorers for the day with 32. It marks as the ninth 20-point plus game in her career, which gives her 54 and the franchise leader for most 20-point plus games in a career. It also gives her, her eighth 30-point game, which is also a new franchise record.

 Liz Cambage recorded her eighth double-double of the season this afternoon with 19 points and 12 total rebounds.

 Allisha Gray ended the afternoon with 15 points. It is the eighth time this season she has registered double figures.

 Gray also led the team in total assists with six, which is a new

 Off the bench, Azurá Stevens led all reserves with 13 points. It is now the seventh time this season she has recorded double figures.

Head Coach Fred Williams

on beating struggling teams… “Every team we play presents its own set of challenges. It does not matter where they are in the standings. We have to grind out each game. This is a well-balanced league. If a team gets hot, they can knock you out. Every team has one weapon. Some teams have two. Some teams have three or four. When those weapons and the players supporting those weapons mesh, that creates a good basketball team. As a coach, I am given the talent, and it is my job to blend it.”

Williams on Skylar Diggins-Smith’s performance… “She gets fired up to play in New York. I thought her jump-shot was in rhythm early. Defensively, she was aggressive, and that carried over into her offense. She is a well-balanced player both inside and out. She can get to the rim and really shoot it. She is special.”

Williams on the three-game winning streak and the moral of the team… “We feel good. We have not had a three-game winning streak this year. It has pretty much been win, lose, win, lose, win, lose. We talked about that, and we made it our goal to put a string of wins together and build off of that. With all that said, it doesn’t get any easier for us. In a few days we see Phoenix, and a few days after that we see Los Angeles, and a few more days after that we see Seattle. We have to take it one at a time.”

Liz Cambage

on what made today’s game different then last meeting vs. Liberty… “We have gotten better as a team. We have gotten better collectively, and we learned from it.”

Cambage on third team win in a row… “It’s been a team season, but we’ve been learning on the run. We’ve been getting used to playing with each other. Wins don’t mean anything we just have to keep doing it. We have Phoenix up next, so it’s straight on to the next one.”

Cambage on strong first quarter… “The start of the season we weren’t starting games to well. It’s something we have been working on and focusing on; specifically, our first quarters and our third quarters.”

Skylar Diggins-Smith

on difference between today’s game and the last time the two teams met… “It was good for us. Obviously, we have momentum coming off of three home games. We played and were just riding that momentum. We are a different team from when we played here in May.”

“We were feeding off of the first quarter performance; jumping out on the double-digit lead and then we sustained it. That’s the difference between our team now and in our first two games together. We are growing.”

Skylar Diggins-Smith on individual performance in today’s game … “We have so many scorers on our team. So maybe some nights it’s going to be me doing a little more scoring. Maybe some nights it’s going to be me getting people open and creating. That’s what I do as a point guard, just trying to have an overall floor game and contributing other aspects to the team and pick up on defense, try to get some rebounds, steals, and assist-any way, I can contribute to the team.”

Head coach Katie Smith

on how she will motivate the team at this point in the season… “I don’t know if we can do anything as coaches, I think there’s a lot of basketball to be played. There’s a lot to prove both individually and as a unit. It has to come from within, each individual person, myself included and we need to put it all out there. If we come locked in both mentally and physically, I think we can feel good about ourselves.”

Smith on the reserves effort in the fourth quarter… “It shows a lot about our bench. We don’t just go out there like, ‘Oh, we lost the game’, our reserves go out there ready to show what they are capable of doing. I’m really proud of those that come in, don’t get a lot of minutes and are still locked in and giving it their all.”

Smith on potential line-up changes… “We are unsure. We will try anything to see what we got. You are not going to be able to play everyone. That’s the tough part about this league.”

Smith on Rebecca Allen’s contributions… “I appreciate it because I know Bec [Rebecca] Allen hasn’t played a bunch but whenever you call her number she gives everything that she has. She may not hit every shot but she is flying around on defense and crashing the boards. She is a shooter and that can space the floor.”

Smith on the Liberty’s play time… “Kia Nurse is doing a nice job but again if Z [Shavonte Zellous] is being aggressive, guarding folks and looking to score. Z is going to play a bit. Same with Piph [Epiphanny Prince] and Sugar [Rogers]. It just depends on who’s coming in and if people are doing their job, it’s hard to give everybody minutes.”

Smith on the Liberty’s search for a second scorer… “We need somebody, obviously we have Tina [Charles] scoring around 19.8* points per game, but we don’t have another double-digit scorer with consistency. Piph has a couple games, we’ve had a couple people but the consistent nature of which to do it is something that we have not found.”

*As of 7/7

Smith on her first-year experience thus far… “Every year, whether as a player or the last few years as a coach, you think with what you have on paper this is how it may go. It never plays out the way you think it will. I don’t think I saw all of this coming, I wasn’t oblivious to thing that. Our team didn’t change from last year to this year. Some of the things that we are still working through and trying to get better at. I didn’t see everything but it’s also not a 100% surprise on a lot of stuff.”

Tina Charles

on playoffs… “Yeah, we just have to hold our heads up and be hopeful. That’s all we can do. We have to keep our heads up and prepare for Connecticut Sun.”

Bria Hartley

on the third quarter… “I think we let Skylar [Diggins-Smith] and [Liz] Cambage get up there. We have to do a better job deflecting them, getting them uncomfortable.”

Hartley on the Liberty’s record of 5-13… “Its tough but we know we have to stay together. Everything we do, we have to do hard and just find a way to get things done and get wins. Once we figure it out, I think we’ll be a tough team to beat. Coming off of the season we had last year but this league is so good, we can’t take things for granted. These games are really tough so we have to find a way to come together and get a win.”

Amanda Zahui B

on the game overall… “We upped the tempo a lot compared to what we did. We did this in a short period of time so that’s definitely something positive. We’re still staying together, trying to support each other through the rough times so I really think that’s one of the most important things.”