Arike Ogunbowale heeds coach's advice, dominates second half to earn WNBA All-Star Game MVP

Arike Ogunbowale heeds coach’s advice, dominates second half to earn WNBA All-Star Game MVP

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Arike Ogunbowale, left, of Team WNBA, left, steals a pass intended for Kelsey Plum (5), of Team USA, during the second half of a WNBA All-Star basketball game Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

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Arike Ogunbowale, of Team WNBA, smiles after hitting a 3-pointer against Team USA during the second half of a WNBA All-Star basketball game Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

By JOHN MARSHALL

PHOENIX (AP) — Arike Ogunbowale sat in the locker room with the rest of her Team WNBA teammates, waiting for coach Cheryl Miller to break down the first half.

Miller instead pointed a finger — at Ogunbowale.

Scoreless in the first half, Ogunbowale scored 21 of her record 34 points in the third quarter to earn MVP honors at the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday night.

“I wasn’t expecting her to say my name — she was talking to the team, but pointing at me,” Ogunbowale said. “She just told me to take a deep breath and play my game.”

Ogunbowale certainly did that.

Playing against the U.S. Olympic team, Ogunwobale spent the first half deferring to teammates, missing the two shots she took.

After the halftime talking to by her Hall of Fame coach, the 5-foot-8 guard turned into the biggest player on the court, scoring on step-back 3-pointers and runners in the lane.

Ogunbowale hit 6 of 10 shots in the third quarter, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. She kept scoring and Team WNBA turned Team USA’s last domestic warm-up before the Paris Olympics into a 117-109 loss. She hit eight 3-pointers and finished 10 for 20 from the floor with six assists to become the third two-time MVP in WNBA All-Star Game history.

Not PARSE.LY: WNBA basketball

Caitlin Clark scores 28, Fever overcome Arike Ogunbowale’s record-tying 9 3s and beat Wings 100-93

“She was just in the zone and they played really good defense multiple times,” said Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, a player known for going on heaters during her career at Iowa. “There’s just nothing you can do in those situations where she’s making step back 3s, one-legged floaters, things like that. You, you literally can’t guard her.”

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Ogunbowale has shown a knack for scoring in bunches throughout her career, starting with her college days, when she hit game-winning shots in the Final Four and national championship game during Notre Dame’s 2018 title run.

Ogunbowale has been one of the WNBA’s best scorers during five seasons with the Dallas Wings, averaging 22.3 points per game this season. She was the All-Star Game MVP the last time Team USA played Team WNBA in an Olympic warm-up, scoring 26 points.

“It’s just a testimony to my hard work,” Ogunbowale said. “Regardless of win, lose or draw, I’m just going to play my game and that’s what I’ve been doing for Dallas. This is good to get a win, even though it doesn’t count.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)