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Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff Writer
PHOENIX — Arike Ogunbowale sat in the locker room at halftime of Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game with zero points and Team WNBA trailing by two. Coach Cheryl Miller pointed to Ogunbowle and called her out in a surprise move.
“I wasn’t expecting her to say my name,” Ogunbowale said. “She just told me to take a deep breath and play my game.”
That she did.
Ogunbowale set a new WNBA All-Star Game record with 34 points to earn her second All-Star Game MVP and lead Team WNBA to a 117-109 win over Team USA in front of 16,407 fans at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.
“I guess you guys saw what happened,” Ogunbowale said.
Miller’s challenge worked immediately. Ogunbowale scored 21 points in the third quarter — the most in a single quarter in WNBA All-Star Game history — setting in motion a repeat of what she and Team WNBA accomplished three years ago, when it knocked off Team USA in the first All-Star Weekend with the WNBA-USA Basketball format. Ogunbowale was also named MVP of that game after scoring 26 points.
The national team rebounded from that loss to win a gold medal in Tokyo.
“It was like a little bit of a deja vu feeling, honestly,” said Team USA forward Brianna Stewart, who had a double-double with 31 points and 10 rebounds.
After the game, in response to a question that inadvertently mentioned the NBA instead of the WNBA, Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve quickly quipped about Ogunbowale: “It felt like we were guarding somebody from the NBA?”
Ogunbowale took her name out of the pool of candidates for the U.S. Women’s National Team earlier this year. At one point during her postgame news conference, Reeve dropped another one-liner. “Is Arike playing for any of these teams that we’re gonna play?” she said to laughs.
Ogunbowale’s 34 points were the second-most scored in any half in WNBA history, including regular season, playoffs, All-Star Games and the Commissioner’s Cup, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. Only Riquna Williams, who scored 35 points in the second half for the Tulsa Shock in a 2013 regular-season game, had more.
That helped Ogunbowale become the fourth player with multiple WNBA All-Star Game MVPs, joining the like of Lisa Leslie and Maya Moore, who each had three, and Swin Cash, who had two.
“Those are three greats, people who paved the way for players like us,” Ogunbowale said. “That’s definitely dope to be in that conversation.”
Ogunbowle’s performance was the icing on the cake of a historic WNBA All-Star Game. Stewart became the first player with 30 points and 10 rebounds in a WNBA All-Star Game and Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese became the first rookie to record a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Team USA’s A’ja Wilson had 22, Diana Taurasi had 14 and Brittney Griner had 10.
Ogunbowale was complemented by Allisha Gray’s 16 points, Nneka Ogwumike’s 14 and Kelsey Mitchell’s 13. Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, who got the start with the most votes among all players, finished with 10 assists, one shy of Sue Bird’s All-Star Game record just three days after setting a new WNBA single-game record with 19 assists.
“That’s Sue’s record,” Clark said. “I can’t take that from her. That’s my homey.”
Clark was asked if Saturday night’s win was vindication for being left off the Olympic team and she bluntly said, “no.”
“I mean, they’re really good,” Clark said. “They had plenty of talent on that team and, I mean, it is the same, I think [three] years prior. I’m pretty sure Team WNBA beat Team USA.
“They were perfectly fine in the Olympics. Like, I think if anything it shows how good this league is.”
Clark and Reese connected in the fourth quarter when Clark drove left and dropped a bounce pass to Reese after Team USA center Brittney Griner picked up Clark. Reese made the layup and then the two high-fived on the way back down court.
“I thought that they were professional, like, as anyone at this level would be,” Team WNBA forward Nneka Ogwumike. “I’m always impressed by the two of them. I think it was also really fun to see them playing together tonight. They had some synergy and the maturity that they have going in, not even just being here at All-Star, but managing all of the influx that they get as the two rookies that are really getting a lot, a lot of attention.
“And then of course being celebrated, too. I think I would like to think that they had fun today and I think that’s the main goal, especially for first Time All Stars, is to enjoy the experience and they helped us win, too.”
