LOS ANGELES — Sparks forwards Dearica Hamby and Cameron Brink each recorded double-doubles to help the team end its three-game losing streak.
Hamby had 16 of her game-high 22 points in the second half and grabbed 12 rebounds for her eighth double-double in 10 games. Brink, a rookie, had her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Sparks outscored the Dallas Wings 20-9 in the fourth quarter to rally for an 81-72 comeback win on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“Our aggressiveness and tenacity on defense,” Hamby said when asked what it took to pull off Friday’s comeback win. “It wasn’t perfect but we were competing and that’s something that we emphasized (Thursday), we had a team meeting and we were like we have to dig deep and compete on defense so to see it on the floor (Friday night) means a lot.”
Guard Lexie Brown, whose fourth 3-pointer of the game put the Sparks ahead to stay at 68-67 with 7:42 left in the fourth quarter, had 16 points and six assists.
“I got more aggressive hunting for my shot and my teammates set me up great (Friday),” Brown said. “Dearica set some amazing screens for me. We emphasized that in practice (Thursday) just being more intentional of what we’re doing on offense.”
The Sparks (3-7) outscored the Wings (3-6) 52-34 in the paint and avenged an 84-83 loss to Dallas on May 26.
“I love the culture that we’re trying to create and build,” Sparks coach Curt Miller said. “I love that we’re establishing playing hard and that’s not anything that we have to coach. I’m really excited about what’s building behind the scenes. The wins and the losses will take care of themselves… I know that it’s going to take time and that it doesn’t always show up in wins and I look at this as our second first year with a new kind of build on what we’re doing.”
Sparks guard Layshia Clarendon’s layup capped a 9-0 run that pushed the Sparks’ lead to 74-67 with 4:59 left. Wings All-Star Arike Ogunbowale, who finished with 22 points, got Dallas within 75-72 with 1:35 left, but Brink answered with a layup to make it 77-72 with 1:18 remaining.
A jumper from Brown pushed the Sparks’ advantage to 79-72 with 51.8 left, then Brink grabbed her 10th rebound off a 3-point attempt by Wings rookie guard Sevgi Uzun with 27.8 remaining.
The Sparks edged the Wings on the boards 36-35, which was a point of emphasis pregame for Coach Miller.
“The centerpiece of having some time of success against Dallas around the league is you have to be able to rebound with them … the game requires physicality to be successful against their post game but also their concerted effort, consistently to get in the paint, so that physicality is going to be really important,” Miller said before tip-off.
The Sparks next host the back-to-back WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces on Sunday.
The Wings opened the game on a 7-0 run, with five points from Maddy Siegrist (21 points). Brink broke the scoring drought with a putback layup, and Brown scored eight points off the bench in the first with her 3-pointer giving the Sparks a 16-14 lead. Hamby (two layups) and guard Aari McDonald (3-pointer) teamed up for a 7-0 run that gave the Sparks a 23-16 lead in the final minute of the period.
“All learning lessons, the hard part about this cadence of the season is you have to learn in games because games are basically every other day now for the next three weeks,” Miller continued.
Ogubowale kept up the offensive pressure for Dallas. Her 14th point of the first half came on a nifty fast break layup, where she faked out Brink to give the Wings a 40-32 lead late in the second quarter.
Brink’s buzzer-beating layup to end the first half gave the Sparks life but the Wings still led, 44-38, at intermission. Siegrist led all scorers with 15 points in the first half. Sparks center Li Yueru, a 6-foot-7 second-year pro from China, was a bright spot for the Sparks, scoring seven of the team’s 15 points in the second.
“Li was huge for us in the first half with her post-ups and even Rickea in the post-ups in transition,” Brown continued.
Sparks rookie forward Rickea Jackson banked in a layup and tied the score at 56-all with 2:37 left in the third quarter. However, the Sparks trailed 63-61 at the end of the third. Siegrist and Ogunbowale combined for 38 points through the first 30 minutes of play.
Jackson again tied the score at 63 on a cutting layup created by a nice assist by Hamby early in the fourth.
“Bigger picture-wise, we’re trying to get better,” Miller said. “We know we’re in build and we know who we are and we’re not satisfied with how we’re playing. It’s not just wins and losses, we’re just not satisfied that we’re playing to our potential.”
Wings coach Latricia Trammell, who spent four seasons as a Sparks assistant coach between 2019-22, acknowledged before the game that her team would be playing with nine available players, as All-Stars Satou Sabally (shoulder), Natasha Howard (foot) and rookie Jaelyn Brown (illness) will be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
“We just have to stay in the mix until they get back,” Trammell said.
More to come on this story.
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