How did Dallas overcome rough shooting day? (‘Good shots,’ free-throws)

Arlington, TX — Who believes in second chances? I bet the Dallas Wings would be the first ones to raise their hands.

After only making two three-point attempts in the first half, facing a 32.3 shooting percentage and collecting seven turnovers in the first 20 minutes, the Wings came back out to not only wow the crowd but to also wow the stat sheet as they confirmed their title as a second-half team.

In the first half, there were big lulls where the Wings were shooting a field goal percentage in the teens, for instance in the first quarter they were shooting a mere 14 percent for over two minutes of play. They finished the game shooting 38.7 percent, more than doubling their early stats. They also collected 15 second-chance points, five more than the Stars did.

“I thought shooting percentage-wise, we didn’t shoot the ball well,” Dallas Wings Head Coach Fred Williams said. “I just told the team to hang in there, to take good, selective shots, make one extra pass and get you a better shot, and then at halftime, we looked and we were down by four of five points.”

Although, the real indicator of the Wings’ win was their runs to the free throw line. They shot 33 free throws in the 40 minutes of action, making 27 of them. On the other end of the floor, the Stars only went to the line 15 times, making 10 of them.

Of all shots that players can take, the shot from the charity stripe might be one of the easiest to practice but yet considered one of the toughest to make in games. The cheers and boos, the all-eyes-on-you factor, and the six pairs of the players’ eyes staring at you create one of the toughest environments to make a simple one point.

For Dallas, those 27 free throws were probably the only thing that stopped the Stars momentum, more specifically Monique Currie’s momentum. Currie led all scorers with 29, edging out Glory Johnson’s 25 and was the force behind the Stars big push. Although, her push alone was not enough to stop the Wings slow, but solid takeover.

“I think I was just being aggressive. When I was open, I took the shots, but I wanted to get the momentum going early, wanted to get to the basket early,” Currie said. “Disappointed that we didn’t win, because I thought we played hard and we played well enough to win this game.”

After trailing for 38 minutes and 33 seconds, the Dallas Wings did everything they could to come out on top and it worked. Although, San Antonio will have their own second chance as they head home for a quick rematch versus the Wings on June 23 and 7 pm CT.