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Arlington, TX -- This was the first of many WNBA games to come for the people of Dallas. The electricity in the building matched that of the Wings fluorescent green uniforms, and if it was any indication of how the people of Dallas felt about the Wings coming to town, they were more than ready. With WNBA President Lisa Borders in attendance, the Dallas Wings made their debut.
Borders spoke pregame on her excitement about this inaugural even noting, "Anytime you have a sold-out house in any sport you're thrilled. To have it in our little game in a new city with a new franchise it's beyond remarkable."
The San Antonio Stars won the tip-off, but the Wings got on the board first with two early free throws by hometown girl, Odyssey Sims. The Stars answered with a jump shot by Dearica Hamby, but it was all Dallas during the first quarter.
San Antonio took a few early timeouts to try to stop the momentum, but Sims couldn't be stopped. She made two three-pointers in the quarter bringing the crowd to their feet. With a little over three minutes left in the quarter, Skylar Diggins made her debut, which also drew a massive eruption from the crowd.
When asked about her knee, Diggins said, "Well it's been a process... it just felt good to come together and be able to check in and play with my team. And I'm just happy we were able to get the win."
Sims led the way with 10 points, and the Wings took a 23-16 lead into the second.
Sydney Colson got the Stars on the board first in the second quarter with a layup, after a momentary breakdown in the Wing's defense. Dallas' Theresa Plaisance came in for Courtney Paris after Paris picked up her third personal foul early in the quarter, but Plaisance left the game a few minutes later with an apparent injury. She would not return.
San Antonio cut the Wings' lead to five, when Alex Montgomery drained a three. An and-one layup by Colson later brought the Stars within three - their smallest deficit of the quarter. However, Aerial Powers answered with five quick points for Dallas. San Antonio quieted the home crowd at times during the second, but the Wings still took a 42-34 lead into halftime.
Kayla McBride started the scoring in the second half for the Stars. She scored four of their first five points of the quarter and finished the quarter with eight. Dallas extended their lead to 13 with 4:16 left in the third quarter thanks to back-to-back layups by Paris and Plenette Pierson.
Sims kept her scoring going through the third with a layup, complete with a 360-spin, that the Stars had no answer for. Through three-quarters with no lead changes, the Wings led 63-52.
Powers got the scoring started with a layup for the Wings to begin the fourth. Karima Christmas kept it going with four points and a defensive rebound to extend the Wings' lead to 17 - their largest lead of the game. Pierson came up big in the third with several big layups.
McBride continued her hot game and drained a three to cut San Antonio's deficit to six with 3:06 left in the game. A Stars layup with two minutes left cut the lead to two, but Sims answered with a layup to bring the lead back to four.
Paris came up with two big rebounds for the Dallas in the final minutes. After an official review, it was determined that San Antonio last touched the ball and possession would go to the Wings with 4.2 seconds left. Crowd favorite, Sims poetically sealed the win for the Wings with two free throws in the final seconds.
The Wings held onto their wire-to-wire lead for an 82-77 victory in their inaugural home game. Dallas looks to add onto their two-game win streak on Friday at home against the Atlanta Dream, while the Stars take on the Chicago Sky back in San Antonio.