Paige Bueckers Scores 11 as Alyssa Thomas, Sami Whitcomb Lead Mercury to Win vs. Wings

The Phoenix Mercury are back in the win column.

Phoenix snapped its two-game losing streak with a 102-72 victory over Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings on Monday at PHX Arena. With Satou Sabally and Kahleah Copper sidelined, the Mercury needed someone else to pick up the scoring.

And Sami Whitcomb answered the call and then some with 36 points and six rebounds behind 12-of-19 shooting from the field and 7-of-11 shooting from deep. It was a brilliant individual performance and enough to help the Mercury overcome their Thursday loss to the same Wings team.

Alyssa Thomas also stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds and two steals as Phoenix overwhelmed a Dallas side that was without Arike Ogunbowale and DiJonai Carrington. 

With so many others absent, all eyes were on Bueckers coming into Monday's contest. After all, the rookie was already named an All-Star starter in her first season and scored 20 or more points in five of her previous six games.

However, she was unable to prevent the Wings from falling to 6-14 on the season as she finished with 11 points and three assists on 3-of-11 shooting.

What seemed like an opportunity for Bueckers to continue her impressive stretch against one of the better teams in the league quickly turned into the Whitcomb show instead. The veteran scored as many points as the Wings in the first quarter when she poured in 19 behind red-hot three-point shooting.

Not only did she take over the early portion of the contest, she reached a career milestone:

The milestones didn't stop, as her 29 first-half points marked the most points in a single half by any player this season.

There was only so much Dallas could do to stay within striking distance with Whitcomb drilling seemingly every shot she threw up, and the visitors made life even more difficult on themselves with a number of turnovers.

It was more of the same in the third quarter as Phoenix made the second half largely a formality with a blistering start out of intermission. The only real questions left to answer were how many points Whitcomb would finish with and whether Thomas would notch a triple-double.

Thomas provided the answer the home crowd was looking for with her 10th rebound early in the fourth quarter, while Whitcomb continued to add on to her career-high as the Mercury pulled away.

She and her teammates will look to build on Monday's performance when they host the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday, while Bueckers and the Wings will attempt to bounce back with a road game against the Chicago Sky on the same day.