Dallas Wings of America star, Arike Ogunbowale was in blistering form for an all-stars’ selected squad of USA’s Woman National Basketball Association (WNBA) and her performance helped them dump the country’s female national team in an exhibition game.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Nigerian-born Ogunbowale was at her very best and pumped in a game-high 26 points to help Team WNBA win the game in Las Vegas, as they snatched a 93-85 cruise over Team USA.
Ogunbowale scored 14 second-half points, including a rare four-point play with 5:37 left that extended the WNBA stars’ lead to 79-73, after which she added her fifth three-pointer with 3:42 remaining for an 86-78 advantage and was named the game’s most valuable player.
Behind Ogunbowale’s game high, Jonquel Jones of Connecticut contributed 18 points and 14 rebounds to the winning cause, while Courtney Williams of Atlanta got off the bench to net 15 points.
Williams’ runner off the glass in the last minute sealed the outcome, while Brittney Griner scored 17 points to lead Team USA, going 8 of 10 from the field, while Breanna Stewart added 15 and Sylvia Fowles also got off the bench to chip in 12 points plus a team-high seven rebounds.
The game’s outcome came down to some minor edges for the WNBA stars. They were 11 of 30 on 3-pointers as compared with Team USA’s 7 of 20 and earned a 41-37 advantage on the boards. They also committed just seven turnovers while forcing 15, leading to 10 more field goal attempts.
Both teams engaged in the expected shootout in the first quarter. Team USA established a 15-7 lead on A’ja Wilson’s jumper about 3 1/2 minutes into the game, but the WNBA squad rallied and tied the game four times before Skylar Diggins-Smith’s 3-pointer made it 28-25 USA after one.
Then the game took on a defensive bent. The WNBA stars clamped down, allowing only 15 points in the second quarter, and took a 44-43 edge into halftime when Williams canned a long jumper with 19.5 seconds left and Team WNBA cruised to victory.
In the end, this is probably a very good thing for Team USA, getting such a stern test early on and seeing where they have things to work on, and the gold medal favorites will look to build on this moving forward as they get ready for another Olympic run.
