Monique Billings stars in 2020 season debut

And just like that — Monique Billings 2020 season tipped off with a bang. The former UCLA Bruins star was dominant in her first action of the 2020 WNBA campaign, leading the way for her Atlanta Dream’s 105-95 victory over the Dallas Wings.

Billings scored a career-high 30 points and chipped in with 13 rebounds and two assists in the win for the Dream. For her efforts, she was awarded player of the game.

Billings finished the night shooting 10-of-14 from the field and connected on 10-of-12 from the free-throw line.

It was Billings’ effort near the end of the game that essentially put it out of reach for Atlanta, connecting on a free throw that pushed the lead to 93-81 with just 4:02 left in the game. That 12-point lead was their biggest lead of the game and the Dream couldn’t be caught at that point.

The Dream jump to 1-0 in the WNBA restart after the 2020 season was delayed and shortened due to the coronavirus pandemic. The games are being played in a bubble at Florida’s IMG Academy.

She was a four-year star for the Bruins from 2014-2018, logging 141 career games and 105 career starts for UCLA over that time. She also played for Team USA during her time as the American team won the U24 Four Nations Tournament title in Tokyo back in 2017 with her on roster.

Billings finished her fabulous UCLA career first in blocks all-time with the Bruins with 228 blocks to her credit. She was also second in rebounds (1,159), second in free throw attempts (677), fourth in free throws made (435) and and ninth in all-time scoring (1,761). She is the single-season UCLA record-holder for blocks (66; 2016-17), free throws made and attempted (154, 234, respectively; 2016-17), second in rebounds (357; 2016-17), as well as a slew of other top-10 single-season results.

Billings and the Dream will be in action next on Wednesday, July 29 at 10:00 p.m. ET against the Las Vegas Aces and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.

Congratulations on a great season debut, Monique!