Remember when Azzi Fudd was labeled a bust because she missed the Dallas Wings’ home opener against the Atlanta Dream on May 12?
That was cute.
The Wings selected Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 WNBA Draft on April 13, and the former UConn star has come off the bench for the first six games of her rookie season behind Paige Bueckers, her former UConn teammate and the 2025 No. 1 overall pick, All-Star Arike Ogunbowale, and veteran guard Odyssey Sims.
Fudd may have forced first-year head coach Jose Fernandez to reconsider his starting five with her performance in the Wings’ 91-76 win over the New York Liberty at Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Liberty held a 44-43 halftime lead, but the Wings exploded in the third quarter. Namely, Fudd went off for 17 points in the third quarter.
Fudd started the second half in place of Sims. She buried five 3-pointers, wreaked havoc on the defensive end, and scored 17 points in the third quarter alone. Fudd finished with a career-high 24 points — her previous career-best was 12 — on 9-for-15 shooting from the floor, including 6-for-12 from three.
Fudd’s six 3-pointers broke the Wings’ franchise record for made 3s by a rookie in a game, and, according to ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, Fudd’s 17-point third quarter is tied for the second-most points scored by a rookie in one quarter since the WNBA implemented quarters in 2006.
“My goal today was to just play a little bit slower,” Fudd said postgame. “I felt like I was rushing a little bit. Every time I caught the ball, I wasn’t reading right away. I was putting the ball down, going too fast, so my goal was just to slow down.”
Myah Taylor of The Dallas Morning News relayed postgame that Fernandez “acknowledged Azzi Fudd’s minutes have increased but wouldn’t comment on lineups when asked.”
Regardless of when Fudd gets in the game, her impact is increasingly fitting of what the Wings envisioned when drafting her to pair with Bueckers, who also scored 24 points against the Liberty.
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