Arike Ogunbowale Out Through First Round of Playoffs After Surgery
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Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale will miss the remainder of the regular season and the team’s first-round playoff matchup after undergoing successful abdominal surgery on Tuesday, the team announced.
Ogunbowale’s procedure comes a day after the star guard did not play in the Wings’ 86–77 victory against the Liberty on Monday due to suffering an abdominal injury in Dallas’s overtime win against the Fever on Saturday.
“Hurts my heart that I can’t be out there with the team, but my dawgs gon hold it down always,” Ogunbowale tweeted on Tuesday.
With Monday’s victory, the Wings secured their second consecutive playoff berth. However, with three games remaining that include a home matchup against the Liberty on Wednesday and two road tests against the Mercury and the Sparks, Dallas must rely on the play of Marina Mabrey, Allisha Gray, and Teaira McCowan. Satou Sabally will also be unavailable for Wednesday's game with an ankle injury.
Currently, the Dallas sit at No. 6 in the WNBA standings and has won five consecutive games. With the new format for this year’s postseason, if the playoffs began Tuesday, Dallas would face the No. 3 Sun in a best-of-three series.
Through 30 games this season, Ogunbowale averaged 19.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game. The two-time All-Star was the only player on the team averaging more than 13.5 points per game.
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