Arike Ogunbowale stole the show at the WNBA All-Star Game.
History repeated itself for the Dallas Wings guard as the WNBA All-Star defeated the U.S. Women’s Olympic Team 117-109 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix.
Ogunbowale was not selected for the final U.S. squad for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but won All-Star MVP that year.
This year, she declined to play for the team but was again named All-Star Game MVP.
Ogunbowale came on strong in the second half, scoring 21 points in the third quarter, 15 of which came on 3-pointers, as the All-Stars began to pull away from the game.
Ogunbowale scored 34 points in the second half alone.
One of the big storylines from the game was the fact that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese were teammates for the first time.
Clark and Reese have a longtime rivalry and played against each other several times during Reese’s playing years as a freshman and sophomore at Maryland, even before those heated NCAA Tournament games between Iowa and South Carolina the past two years.
They also played against each other in AAU tournaments during their high school years.
During an interview during the first half of the game, Rees was asked about the first time he and Clark were teammates.
“It’s pretty cool. When she gets the ball, I run to get the ball because I know she’s going to throw it to me,” Reese said. “It’s awesome to play with her. We’re going to play a lot together in the future and hopefully in four years we’ll be on the Olympic team together.”
Reese recorded a WNBA-record 15 consecutive double-doubles earlier this season and also had another double-double in the All-Star Game with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
“When I got the double-double, she said, ‘I’m starting to like you,'” Reese said with a smile on ABC’s postgame show, referring to Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller, who was the head coach of the WNBA team.
Clark’s first points came midway through the second quarter, missing all seven of his 3-point attempts and finishing with just four points.
Still, Clark had a big impact on the game with her passing, finishing with 10 assists, one shy of Sue Bird’s WNBA All-Star Game career record.
Miller said she is enjoying the experience.
“I’m having fun. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m having fun,” Miller said during a mic’d-up segment during the match.
“They don’t have any answers for you at all,” Miller was seen telling Ogunbowale during a break in the fourth quarter.
With every player on the court competing at full strength, the game was filled with an exhilarating tension, in stark contrast to the layup line of the NBA All-Star Game.
Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve grew frustrated as the WNBA All-Stars pressed forward, and in an interview during the first half, she harshly criticized her team’s defensive intensity.
Two-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart led Team USA in scoring with 31 points on 10-of-21 field goal attempts.
Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, who is also the favorite to win the WNBA MVP award this season, had 22 points and six rebounds for Team USA.
During a broadcast during the NCAA Tournament earlier this year, Diana Taurasi, a 42-year-old Phoenix Mercury veteran for Team USA, made comments that suggested Clark would be on a steep learning curve in the WNBA.
Taurasi and Clark shared a warm embrace before the game, and Clark smiled when Taurasi set a screen for him in the first half.
