Johnson's 24 points, 12 rebounds lead Wings past Sparks

Jun 10, 2017, 03:51 pm

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Glory Johnson had a season-high 24 points and 12 rebounds and the Dallas Wings beat the Los Angeles Sparks 96-90 on Friday night.

Skylar Diggins-Smith added 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Wings (4-5), who had their highest scoring output of the season and snapped a three-game skid.

Kayla Thornton also scored 13 points, Theresa Plaisance added 11 and Kaela Davis had 10 for Dallas.

Los Angeles (4-3) opened the game with a 17-4 run and didn't trail until midway through the fourth quarter. Thornton's steal and layup -that made it 83-81 with 5:26 to go -- came amid a 19-5 run that was capped by a shot-clock violation and then two free throws by Thornton that pushed the Dallas lead to 86-81 with 3:47 left. Odyssey Sims hit a short floater to pull the Sparks within three about a minute later, but Johnson made a putback and assisted on a Diggins-Smith basket to make it 90-83 with 1:22 remaining and Dallas hung on from there.

Nneka Ogwumike had 28 points, 13 rebounds and three steals for the Sparks. Candace Parker added 25 points.

Los Angeles, the 2016 WNBA champions, didn't lose its third game last season until July 19.