PHOENIX — Arike Ogunbowale was the dominant scorer on the floor. Caitlin Clark was the best passer. Angel Reese was her usual double-double machine.
The U.S. may still have the best team at the Olympics, but at the All-Star Game, they didn’t have all the best players on Saturday night.
Ogunbowale set the All-Star scoring record with 34 points and Clark fell just short of the assist mark in her All-Star debut as the WNBA team beat the U.S. Olympic team 117-109.
It was the second consecutive win for the WNBA All-Star team over the Olympians. The All-Stars also won in 2021 led by Ogunbowale, who was MVP of both that game and this one.
“This is going to help us tremendously. We don’t get that many game opportunities,” said Breanna Stewart who had 31 points to lead the U.S. ”We can go back and watch the film and focus on how we can continue to be better. It was like a little bit of deja vu feeling but just locking in.”
The loss was the only one that the Americans had in 2021 en route to winning their seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal. The U.S. hopes for the same results in Paris later this month. No team in the world could match the depth or talent that the WNBA All-Stars had.
“Is Arike playing for any of these teams we are going to play?” U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve deadpanned.
Saturday’s loss came hours after the U.S. men’s Olympic team rallied to beat South Sudan by one point in an exhibition game in London.
The U.S. women’s team will next play Germany in London for an exhibition game Tuesday before going to France for the Olympics. The Americans are in a pool with Belgium, Japan and Germany.
“We have work to do and we know that,” Reeve said. “Sometimes it’s good, adversity, etc. I don’t think we needed a game like this to have our attention. We know how hard it is to do what we’re trying to do and we have work to do to get there.”
Ogunbowale once again was a thorn in the side of the U.S. team, scoring all of her points in the second half. The 2021 All-Star MVP took over the game in the third quarter scoring 21 points, hitting six of her 10 shots, including five 3-pointers. The U.S. team threw everything at the Dallas Wings star, but they just couldn’t stop her.
Ogunbowale said that WNBA team coach Cheryl Miller said something to her at the half about being more aggressive.
“Told me to take a deep breath and go out and play my game,” she said.
Ogunbowale has been in the U.S. national team pool for the past two Olympics, but didn’t make the roster either time. She pulled her name out of the pool of players early this time around saying the whole process was political.
By the time Ogunbowale was done in the third quarter, the WNBA All-Stars had turned a two-point halftime deficit into an 88-79 lead. She broke Jewell Loyd’s overall All-Star scoring record of 31 set last year with a 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter.
The Olympians, who have only practiced together for two days, never really threatened.
A’ja Wilson added 22.
There was so much hype and energy around this All-Star Game with the debuts of phenomenal rookies Clark and Reese. The pair have helped lift the WNBA to new heights this season with record attendance and viewership.
It was their first time the young stars had ever played together. One of Clark’s 10 assists came to Reese, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“We knew after our little 30 minute practice yesterday that we were going to win,” Reese said. “The tone was set.”
Clark finished one assist short of Sue Bird’s Al-Star record.
“That’s Sue’s record. Can’t take that from her, that’s my homey,” Clark said.
The game was put in Phoenix to celebrate the 20-year career of Mercury star Diana Taurasi and the return of Brittney Griner from her wrongful detainment in Russia in 2022.
“This will be one of the single hardest things to concentrate on. Is actually coaching the team because of what’s happening,” Reeve said. “It is one of the greatest spectacles, I think, in the history of our league.”
While Clark and Reese were given loud ovations from the crowd in pregame introductions, nothing matched the applause for Taurasi, who was playing in her 11th All-Star Game.
She got the scoring started with a 3-pointer from the wing in the back-and-forth first half which saw the U.S. hold a slim 54-52 lead. It didn’t last long as the WNBA team scored nine of the first 11 points in the third quarter to take control.
