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WNBA All-Star Game: Amid Ogunbowale’s Historic Performance, Reese Shines

Tacuma Roeback, Managing Editor
Arike Ogunbowale and Angel Reese shine for Team WNBA

Arike Ogunbowale and Angel Reese shine for Team WNBA (Photos, Wikimedia Commons).

The WNBA All-Star game featured a historic offensive performance, but our “Chitown Barbie” also held her own.

Team WNBA beat Team USA 117-109 thanks to the feats of Arike Ogunbowale, who blistered the Paris-bound Olympic squad by dropping 34 points, the most ever in a WNBA All-Star game. 

Ogunbowale, who didn’t get any points in the first half, was breathtaking in the second. She scored all her points in the third and fourth quarters against a team that features several of the most decorated players in WNBA history, such as Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.

Ogunbowale was nitroglycerin, nailing shot after shot with multiple defenders in her face. For chunks of the second half, teammates fed her the ball and let her go to work. It must have felt like déjà vu for the Milwaukee-born Notre Dame star, named the game’s MVP. 

 

The WNBA All-Star team secured its second consecutive win over the Olympians, who were also defeated in 2021. Ogunbowale was also the MVP of that game.

But she had help. 

That’s where Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese and her nemesis-turned-teammate Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever come in.

Reese, owner of a record 15-consecutive double-doubles in her rookie season, got another one in the nationally-televised All-Star showcase, scoring 12 points and 11 rebounds in just 15 minutes of action off the bench for Team WNBA.

Two of those points came courtesy of Clark, who finished with 10 assists, one shy of an All-Star record. 

 

Stewart and Wilson led Team USA, scoring 31 and 22 points respectively. 

The U.S. will play an exhibition game against Germany in London on Tuesday before heading to France for the Olympics. The Americans are grouped in the Olympics with Belgium, Japan and Germany. 

The last time the Olympic team lost to the WNBA All-Stars, they won their seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal. Obviously, Team USA is hoping for the same result in Paris. 

What the All-Star weekend made clear was that the WNBA is basking in the glow of surging popularity and ticket and merchandising revenue. Reese and Clark have helped lead that resurgence. 

 

Phoenix, Arizona’s Footprint Center, the setting for the All-Star game, was filled to capacity. Legends from the past, stars of the present and phenoms of the future converged at the arena, which, for the weekend, served as the seat of women’s basketball royalty. 

Cheryl Miller, the best women’s college basketball player ever, was the Team WNBA coach, and Cheryl Reeve, the WNBA’s winningest coach, is leading the Olympic team. 

Beyond the game, former WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes appeared courtside next to college star Paige Bueckers. Flau’jae Johnson was spotted; the popular college star and rapper flicked it up for cameras along with celebrities like Jason Sudeikis, Shannon Sharpe, and various NFL and NBA athletes.  

Overall, the All-Star weekend was a ‘W’ for the WNBA and its fans. 

 

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