WNBA POW: Ogunbowale Steals Show in All-Star Game
Arike Ogunbowale Stats Saw Dallas Wings Star Score 34 Points In All-Star Upset
Ogunbowale Becomes Fourth Two-Time WNBA All-Star MVP
The move didn’t make much news, but former WNBA scoring champion Arike Ogunbowale withdrew her name from consideration to be a part of the 2024 U.S.
Olympic team as it became evident that she wasn’t high up on the list of guards to make the team. The Arike Ogunbowale stats in a recent game gave the Dallas Wings star the last laugh.
As was the case three years ago, Ogunbowale used the All-Star Game to show the country what USA Basketball was missing as a team of WNBA All-Stars defied the WNBA odds with the 117-109 win over the U.S. Olympic Team in the WNBA All-Star Game.
The U.S. team was priced as a 6.5-point favorite in the game played in front of 16,407 fans at the Footprint Center in Phoenix.
The WNBA predictions had Ogunbowale with the sixth-shortest odds to win the WNBA MVP award heading into the season.
In large part due to the struggles of the Wings this season, her MVP odds are trending in the wrong direction.
For Ogunbowale and the other WNBA players who didn’t make it onto an Olympic roster, the next game won’t be for nearly a month.
Ogunbowale joins Maya Moore, Swin Cash, and Lisa Leslie as the only players to be named the WNBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player more than once.
She earned the WNBA Player of the Week after hitting eight 3-pointers and adding six assists.
Ogunbowale Saves Her Best For Last
After struggling in the first half of the WNBA All-Star Game, Ogunbowale was surprised to hear WNBA All-Star head coach Cheryl Miller tell her to take a deep breath and play her game.
She certainly heeded the advice of one of the greatest players in women’s basketball history after being held scoreless in the first half.
The Arike Ogunbowale stats showed that she set the WNBA record with 34 points and that included 21 in the third quarter which was the most by a player in any quarter in the history of the WNBA All-Star Game.
This is not the first time that Ogunbowale torched the U.S. national team. In 2021, she had 26 points to lead Team WNBA past Team USA.
The United States would win the Olympic gold medal without losing a game.
Ogunbowale had a stretch of seven straight games when she shot less than 40% from the field but in her final game before the All-Star Game, Ogunbowale had 24 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in a win over the Indiana Fever.
She scored a season-high 40 points in a win over the Phoenix Mercury in her first trip to the Footprint Center this season.
Ogunbowale is fourth in WNBA history with an average of 20.5 points per game with only Cynthia Cooper, A’ja Wilson, and Breanna Stewart averaging more points per game than Ogunbowale.
Among players with at least 100 career games played, only Sabrina Ionescu and Diana Taurasi average more 3-pointers made per game.
ARIKE OGUNBOWALE TONIGHT
• 34 POINTS
• 6 ASSISTSMVP 🎉
— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) July 21, 2024
A Month Off Could Pay Dividends
It could be argued that no player was asked to do more in the first half of the 2024 WNBA season than Ogunbowale.
Satou Sabally, the second-leading scorer for the Wings a season ago, has not played this season due to injury.
Second-year forward Maddy Siegrist tried to pick up the slack as she averaged 16.6 points and 4.2 rebounds before being sidelined with a broken left index finger.
Veteran post player Natasha Howard joined Siegrist as a key player who missed 11 of the first 24 games for the Wings.
Sabally is expected to suit up for Germany in the Olympics so she could return for the Wings after the Olympic break ends. Siegrist will benefit from the month with no games as she looks to return to the court in August.
Ogunbowale went into the Olympic break with 10 straight double-digit scoring games (not counting the All-Star Game). The Arike Ogunbowale stats had her averaging 19.8 points in those games.
Plenty of Work to Do
Dallas is tied with Washington for the worst record in the WNBA at 6-19 with Los Angeles at 6-18.
The Wings are 4.5 games behind the Chicago Sky in the race for the last playoff spot in the WNBA playoffs.
Chicago recently traded away one of its top scorers when Marina Mabrey was shipped off to the Connecticut Sun.
It is not going to be easy for Dallas to makeup that ground.
The next three games for the Wings will be against either the Connecticut Sun or the New York Liberty, the teams with the two best records in the WNBA.
Eleven of the final 15 games in the regular season come against teams currently holding down a playoff spot.
Three of the final five games will be against either the New York Liberty or the Las Vegas Aces, the teams that met in the 2023 WNBA Finals.
Dallas is priced at +25000 in the odds of winning the WNBA title with only the Washington Mystics having longer championship odds.
The WNBA player stats show that Ogunbowale is third in the WNBA in points per game this season as she trails only U.S. Olympians A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and Kahleah Copper of the Phoenix Mercury.
For WNBA betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
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