The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Bueckers’ 21 Leads Dallas Over Connecticut While Atlanta Clips Washington and Seattle Hits ‘Vegas With Third Straight Loss

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Friday night’s WNBA triple bill on ION saw one game with two teams off to their worst start former UConn star Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall draft pick in April’s draft, lead Dallas (3-11) to an 86-83 win over the Connecticut Sun (2-11) before a sellout crowd of 8,910 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville

Down South Atlanta (9-4) bounced back from its blown lead in New York to clip Washington 92-91 before a crowd of 3,265 at Gateway Center in suburban College Park, Ga., while out West Seattle (8-5) continued to thrive as once-mighty Las Vegas (5-7) continued to dive 90-83 before a crowd of 10,428 at Michelob ULTRA Arena in the desert.

Bueckers, who played many collegiate games in special events and conference tournaments at Mohegan, has never lost there and is 2-0 as a pro scoring 21 in last month’s visit with the Wings and 21 again this time around with seven assists.

Rookie Aziaha James out of N.C. State scored all 17 of her points in the second half in a game with 12 lead changes and 10 ties until Dallas went ahead for good when James scored at the end of the third quarter.

NaLyssa Smith scored 12 points while Li Yueru added 11 with nine boards.

Former Villanova star Maddie Siegrist is sitting out with a right knee injury not requiring surgery but will be sidelined till later this summer.

Rookie Aneesah Morrow out of LSU who made a shot inside to pull the Sun within three points 76-73 with three minutes left in regulation, scored 10 off the bench.

Tina Charles scored 26 points and Jacy Sheldon scored 10 in the Sun’s fifth straight loss.

Connecticut goes to expansion Golden State Sunday while Dallas is at Washington.

In Atlanta’s win over the Mystics (5-8), all five Dream starters scored in double figures: Allisha Gray with 18 points, Brionna Jones with 14, Rhyne Howard with 13 points and six assists, Brittney Griner with 10 points and seven rebounds, and Jordin Canada with 11 points.

Washington’s Shakira Austin scored 28 points with 10 boards for a double double, Brittney Sykes scored 21 with eight assists, and rookie Sonia Citron scored 17.

Atlanta finished with an 11-2 run to hold off the Mystics.

The Dream host Chicago Sunday.

In the win by Seattle, Nneka Ogwumike had 25 points and 12 boards while Skylar Diggins had 24 points and six assists. Gabby Williams collected her first career double double with 18 points and 12 boards while Rutgers grad Erica Wheeler had 10 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter.

Las Vegas’ former Storm star Jewell Loyd scored 15 points, A’la Wilson returned from a three-game absence in the concussion protocol to score 22 while Jackie Young also scored 22, and rookie Aaliyah Nye scored 13.

On Sunday, Las Vegas will move to T-Mobile Arena to host Indiana and Caitlyn Clark while Seattle hosts New York.

On Saturday Phoenix is at Chicago at 1 p.m. on ABC and ESPN+ while Los Angeles at 8 p.m. is at Minnesota on NBA TV.