Wings beat Dream after almost losing big lead

The Dallas Wings watched a 23-point, third-period lead nearly vanish before hanging on for a 94-84 win over the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.

Sparked by Jordan Hooper’s eight fourth-quarter points off the bench, the Dream almost completed the comeback. But clinging to a 75-72 lead, Kayla Thornton came up big for the Wings (9-9), sinking a pair of free throws and hitting a field goal to give Dallas some breathing room.

Allisha Gray’s floating jumper put Dallas up 82-74 with 3:30 left and it looked like the Wings could take a big sigh of relief.

But a jumper by Tiffany Hayes and Brittany Sykes’ 3-pointer got the Dream (6-8) within four at 86-82 with 1:28 left.

Gray answered with a rare four-point play to seal the win for the Wings.

Skylar Diggins-Smith scored 21 points and Gray had 20 for the Wings, who came into the game with the league’s most porous defense, allowing a league-high 86.1 points per game. For most of the game, the defense was stellar. When it had to, it came up with the big stop.

The Dream, who won all three matchups against the Wings last season, were led by Hayes’ 16 points. Sykes added 15 and Hooper finished with 13.

It looked like Atlanta’s fate would be sealed in the second period.

The Dream held the Wings scoreless for the first two-plus minutes of the quarter, but could only trim an eight-point deficit to four at 31-27. That’s when the Dallas offense kicked into gear and sped past the Dream.

Theresa Plaisance sank a 3-pointer to end the Dallas drought and put the Wings back up by seven at 34-27 at the 7:31 mark. From there, the Wings outscored the Dream 18-9 to take a 52-36 advantage into halftime.

While the Dream offense could not get on track in the third, the Wings had no problem. When Diggins-Smith completed a traditional 3-point play, Dallas had a 64-41 lead at the 6:41 mark.

The Dream then went on a 27-7 run to get within three points at 75-72.