ARLINGTON, TX — Dallas Wings guard JJ Quinerly recently suffered a knee injury. On Sunday, the Wings provided an important update on the situation. Quinerly, a promising young rookie, is expected to miss the remainder of the season due to an ACL sprain in her left knee, the team announced.
Quinerly is expected to make a full recovery. Nevertheless, losing Quinerly is another difficult blow for the Wings. Li Yueru and Tyasha Harris are already ruled out for the rest of the '25 campaign while Arike Ogunbowale is dealing with an injury as well.
“Very much so, on both sides of the ball,” Wings head coach Chris Koclanes said in reference to the blow to the team of losing Quinerly for the remainder of the season. “Just another pace creator and tempo changer on both sides of the ball. Gets our offense going and flowing. And then defensively, her ability to get into people with ball pressure and navigate kind of speeds other teams up, too.
“So, we definitely miss her presence on the floor.”
Quinerly, 22, averaged 6.5 points, 2.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds per outing across 34 games played (13 starts) in her rookie season. She also shot 42.6 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from beyond the arc.
How will Quinerly's injury absence impact the Wings moving forward?
“It (Quinerly's injury) puts P (Paige Bueckers) on the ball more right away,” Koclanes said. “With just Grace (Berger) there, you know, ‘P, you're gonna have to initiate more and dominate on the ball some more.' And she's, you know, more than capable and ready to do that.”
The Wings will play the Golden State Valkyries in Arlington on Sunday afternoon at 4 PM EST. Dallas is trying to play the role of spoiler at this point in the season, as the Wings have already been eliminated from postseason contention.
