ARLINGTON, Texas — Breanna Stewart put on one of the most complete individual performances of the WNBA season, and it was just enough. The New York Liberty escaped College Park Center with a 99-98 overtime victory over the Dallas Wings on Monday, surviving a fierce home stand from a Wings squad that refused to go quietly.
Stewart was the story from start to finish, finishing with 33 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists — a dominant triple-double that carried New York through regulation and into the extra period. Her ability to impact the game in every phase proved to be the difference in a contest that came down to a single possession.
For Dallas, Arike Ogunbowale delivered her own standout effort, pouring in a game-high 29 points in a valiant losing cause. Jessica Shepard was a force on the glass, hauling in 16 rebounds to give the Wings a fighting chance on the interior, while Sug Sutton orchestrated the offense with 7 assists. Despite those individual contributions, Dallas came up one point short when the final buzzer sounded.
The game was a back-and-forth affair that neither team could put away through four quarters, ultimately requiring overtime to settle the outcome. Ogunbowale’s scoring kept the Wings in contention throughout, and Dallas had multiple opportunities to close the door, but New York’s resilience — fueled largely by Stewart’s relentless production — kept the Liberty alive at every critical juncture.
From a team-statistics standpoint, New York’s ability to generate second-chance opportunities was a key factor. The Liberty pulled down 17 offensive rebounds, giving them extra possessions that proved vital in a one-point game. New York finished with 48 total rebounds on the night, a number that helped offset a relatively modest 42 percent shooting performance from the field. The Liberty connected on just 9 of 32 three-point attempts, a 28 percent clip that left points on the board, but they compensated by getting to the free-throw line and converting at an 87 percent rate, going 20-for-23 from the stripe.
Ball security was another area where New York held an edge. The Liberty committed just 8 total turnovers, a disciplined number in a high-stakes overtime game. Stewart’s 8 assists reflected how effectively New York moved the ball when it mattered most, and the Liberty’s 6 blocked shots helped limit Dallas’s opportunities in the paint during crunch time.
The Wings, playing at home in front of their Arlington crowd, had every reason to believe they could pull off the win. Shepard’s 16 rebounds gave Dallas a physical presence inside, and Sutton’s 7 assists showed the Wings were capable of generating quality looks. But New York’s depth of offensive rebounding and Stewart’s sheer versatility made it nearly impossible for Dallas to sustain any lead long enough to seal the result.
The Liberty’s overtime escape adds another hard-fought victory to their ledger, while the Wings are left to reflect on a game they had well within reach. For Dallas, the loss stings all the more given the performance of Ogunbowale, who gave her team everything she had on a night when 29 points simply wasn’t quite enough against one of the league’s premier players at the top of her game.
