A thrilling encounter went down at the Footprint Center in Phoenix between Team USAB Women’s National Team and Team WNBA. This neck-to-neck battle ended with the WNBA All-Star team securing a 117-109 victory over the team chosen for the Paris Olympics. While all eyes were on the rookie duo of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, it was Dallas Wings’ dynamic point guard, Arike Ogunbowale who stole the show. The 27-year-old delivered a record-breaking performance as she finished her night with 34 points, and 3 rebounds to go along with 6 assists.

Consequently, these numbers are the best in an All-Star affair as it surpasses Jewell Loyd’s previous year’s record of 31 points. In addition to this, she also grabbed the MVP honors for the second time in an All-Star game. This delightful turn of events transpired for the 4x WNBA All-Star after she pulled off a massive third quarter, which included 21 points while shooting 60% from the field and 71.4% from beyond the arc. However, these weren’t the only interesting takeaways from the game.

Her 30+ minutes on the floor also saw her shooting 50% of her field goals (10 of 20). In addition to this, she was 8 of 13 from the 3-point range, 5 of which came within a span of 10 minutes. She reflected on her performance soon after the game ended.

Ogunbowale said, “It’s just a testimony to my hard work. 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.” Moreover, her performance brought out comments from her rookie teammate Caitlin Clark as well.

Caitlin Clarks hails Arike Ogunbowale

There were a lot of applauses that headed Ogunbowale’s way. One of them was from the Rookie of the Month, Caitlin Clark. She expressed her admiration towards the 5 ft 8 in guard by saying, “She was just in the zone and they played really good defense multiple times. 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.”

Interestingly, Ogunbowale’s performance managed to outshine the historic performances of the rookies on the show. While Caitlin Clark set the record for most assists by a rookie (10) in an All-Star Game, Angel Reese became the first rookie to record a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) in the exhibition game.

Through this performance, Ogunbowale joined an elite list that includes Lisa Leslie (1999, 2001, 2022), Swin Cash (2009, 2011), and Maya Moore (2015, 2017, 2018) as the only athletes to win the All-Star MVP awards on more than one occasion.

Indeed, a captivating exhibition by Arike Ogunbowale. Her numbers are proof of how much of a valuable asset she is for the Dallas Wings. Fans would hope that she picks up from where she left off soon after the Olympics break gets over.