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Paige Bueckers made his WNBA debut on Friday.
The former star of the UConn Huskies had 10 points in 3 of 10 from the field with seven rebounds and two assists against Minnesota Lynx. However, the Dallas Wings fell short in their first game of the season, 99-84.
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The Dallas Wings Guard, Paige Bueckers (5), speaks with Chief coach Chris Koclanes, on the right, in the first half of a WNBA basketball match against Minnesota Lynx, on Friday, May 16, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (Photo AP/Richard W. Rodríguez)
Bueckers suggested that he had a sigh of relief after he finished his first career game.
“The first is always the most difficult, usually,” Bueckers said. “It does not mean that it is not more difficult, but that it can only have a starting point and continue developing that. And then there are no more questions about how it will be for its first WNBA game. It has now advanced beyond that.”
Wings coach Chris Koclanes spoke brightly Bueckers and said the rookie could handle the exaggeration and pressure that will come with his first season at the W.
“It has been fantastic. It is special in how you can handle things with such grace,” Koclanes said. “As a team, like preaching really, much attention to evolve our mental game and only deal with everything else, all external expectations, external noise and really try to expose them and give them all kinds of different ways of keeping present.
The Dallas Wings Guard, Paige Bueckers, warms up before a WNBA basketball match against Minnesota Lynx, on Friday, May 16, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (Photo AP/Richard Rodríguez)
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“Credit to Paige, she enters individually with an incredible amount of personal attention about that and already lives in that way,” Koclanes said. “It combined well with our style and what we are trying to create with the type of person that is already.”
Arike Ogunbowale had 16 points to lead the wings. The newcomer Dijonai Carrington had 15 points in his debut in Dallas.
Naphesa Collier had 34 points to lead the LYNX. Courtney Williams had 25 points and nine assists.
Minnesota Lynx Courtney Williams Guard (10) leads the ball beyond the Dallas Wings, Arike Ogunbowale (24) in the second half of a WNBA basketball game on Friday, May 16, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (Photo AP/Richard W. Rodríguez)
The Lynx lost in the WNBA finals last season against New York’s freedom. They ended the year 30-10.
