Stars, Wings set to battle for second time in three days (Jun 22, 2017)

Published Jun. 22, 2017 10:19 p.m. ET

Lone Star State bragging rights will be on the line Friday when the San Antonio Stars and Dallas Wings meet for the third time this season -- and the second time in three days -- at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

The Wings held off winless San Antonio (0-12) on Wednesday 81-78 to post their second victory against their Texas rivals this year. It was the Stars'14th consecutive loss, a streak that stretches to the end of last season.

The WNBA record is 20 straight losses by Tulsa in 2011. The worst start to a season is 0-17 by Atlanta in 2008.

Dallas trailed seven points with 5:09 to play but took the lead for good at 80-78 on a three-point play by Skylar Diggins-Smith with 1:27 remaining. San Antonio had two late chances to answer back but couldn't as Dearica Hamby missed two free throws with 4.2 seconds to play and had a turnover on its final possession.

"We didn't finish the game," Stars coach Vickie Johnson said. "I think we played well for 37 minutes but the last three, we got nervous as far as winning the basketball game. We played not to lose instead of playing to win. That really hurt us."

Glory Johnson had a double-double (25 points and 10 rebounds) to lead the Wings to the win while Diggins-Smith and Karima Christmas-Kelly added 16 points apiece. Dallas (6-8) has now captured back-to-back games after dropping three in a row and six of its past seven outings prior to Wednesday.

"We just had to grind it out and play hard defensively," Dallas coach Fred Williams said. "San Antonio played a great game. We just had to bear down. We kept ourselves in it and were able to hit big shots when we needed to."

The Stars were led by Monique Currie's game-high 29 points as San Antonio came up just short of its first win of the season. Moriah Jefferson scored 16 for the Stars but leading scorer Kayla McBride was held to 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting for the Stars.

"We came out really strong, but we had a few breakdowns," Stars guard Moriah Jefferson said. "Seems like that happens pretty much every game, so we've got to figure out a way to stop the breakdowns, stay mentally focused for 40 minutes. But we did fight really hard today, it just didn't come out the way we wanted it to."

Dallas also won the first meeting between the teams this season 94-82 on May 25 in San Antonio.

The Stars are off to their worst start in franchise history and have lost 12 consecutive home games dating back to last July, establishing an WNBA mark for successive home-game futility.