by INDIANAPOLIS – The Dallas Wings started preseason action on the road today, losing to the Indiana Fever, 108-90 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. First round draft pick Aerial Powers led all scorers with 17 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the floor with six rebounds.
It was the Wings’ first appearance since the franchise relocated from Tulsa last year.
Dallas’ 90 points in today’s game, was the highest score tallied under head coach Fred Williams in preseason play. Two Wings players joined Powers in scoring double figures. Forward Theresa Plaisaance went 5-of-11 scoring 11 and eight-year WNBA veteran, Erin Phillips scored 10, where two of the shots were made behind the three point line.
The Wings led much of the first quarter until the Fever’s Asia Taylor layed it up to tie the game 12-12. The Wings caught up and tied the game five times in the second quarter, until the Fever came in and took the lead for the remainder of the game. Head coach Fred Williams was pleased on the offensive game the team played and focused on giving the younger players more playing time to get familiar with both the offensive and defensive game.
“Being on the road in preseason play, you want to get everybody in the game,” said Williams. “When you have 14 players you don’t have a lot of minutes to give equal minutes. But I wanted to get the younger players more reps on the floor, get to know each other better with timing on defense and offense. But we know that we have to work on a lot of things on defense. And offensive, I was very pleased with our energy and scoring some points.”
Erin Phillips electrified the first minutes of the game, scoring a three-pointer,10 seconds into the first quarter, which jump started the team to a 4-0 run. Each team led by as many as 7 points in a see-saw first half featuring nine lead changes and seven ties. Indiana led 55-54 at the break, and never trailed again.
Jude Schimmel (Umatilla) made her WNBA preseason debut with the Wings. In 24 minutes of play, which was the 2nd most, Jude added 5 points and had 4 assists and 4 steals.
Both teams played without its top stars. Dallas played without returning starters Skylar Diggins, Karima Christmas, Courtney Paris and Odyssey Sims. Indiana was without Tamika Catchings, Marissa Coleman, Shenise Johnson, Erlana Larkins and trade acquisition Devereaux Peters.
The Wings head back to Arlington to continue preseason action on May 8, when they host the Connecticut Sun at College Park Center at 1:30 pm CST. Tickets are still available and can be purchased at www.dallaswingsbasketball.com.
