Crowd electric as Dallas Wings deliver victory in home debut

The excitement to finally see a Dallas Wings game has been electric over the past few months.

That electricity was put into form Saturday night in the Wings’ home opener against the San Antonio Stars at College Park Center on the campus at UT Arlington.

“It felt like home, it was great. The crowd is on you and it’s loud. I think it’s a great atmosphere for our league and the WNBA and we’ll continue to have that,” coach Fred Williams said. “It will be tremendous for us this season.”

In front of a sellout crowd of 7,275, Dallas nearly blew a 17-point lead but held off the Stars 82-77. Irving MacArthur graduate Odyssey Sims scored a team-high 23 points, going 11 of 12 from the free-throw line, in her first game back home.

“I was very excited to play tonight for the home opener — happy to see my friends and family to come and support me,” Sims said. “I was a little jittery at first, but it wore off as the game went on.”

“For the fans being here, it was a packed house,” Williams added. “I thought it was a great opening event for the city of Arlington and Dallas and the surrounding cities and I think our ladies fought hard.”

WNBA president Lisa Borders was in attendance and addressed the media and crowd prior to tip-off.

“Any time you have a sold-out crowd in any sport, you’re thrilled,” Borders said. “To have it in our home game with a new city and new team, it’s beyond remarkable.”

The decision to put a team in the area was made prior to Borders’ arrival as league president, but she said she endorsed the idea right away.

“We think it’s a terrific market,” Borders said. “Texas is a great state and Dallas has a great market and we’re delighted to be able to play here with the Wings.”

Also in attendance were UT Arlington president Vistasp Karbhari, UT Arlington women’s basketball coach Krista Gerlich, TCU women’s basketball coach Raegan Pebley, Dallas Cowboys Lucky Whitehead and Morris Claiborne, Birdville girls basketball coach Amy Ingram, Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams, and high school basketball Hall of Famer Leta Andrews.

Andrews, who coached girls basketball at Granbury and is the all-time winningest coach in the nation with 1,416 career victories, was honored before tip-off with a Wings jersey.

Dallas (3-1) will host Atlanta at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Chicago at 3:30 p.m. May 29.

“I think we’ll have a good home stretch, we can get some wins,” Sims said. “I know next week is very important for us, just have to practice hard and play harder and defend our home court, that’s the biggest thing — no matter who we play, whether it’s the best team, we still want to defend our court.”

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Crowd electric as Dallas Wings deliver victory in home debut."