The streak is over.
Golden State had not lost a playoff game at Ballhalla, ever. Tonight, the Valkyries lost Game 2 of the WNBA Finals to the Atlanta Dream, 79-65. They are now tied at one game a piece in a best of seven series.
It began another tight, low-scoring game. The Valkyries’ score stayed low, the game — not so tight.
Early on the Valks bench had an immediate impact in a close first quarter. When Kaila Charles entered the game she was hot-potatoed the ball with the shot clock running down and sank a three. Minutes later Tiffany Hayes came in and managed to also beat out the shot clock with a three-point possession.
Both Hayes and Kaitlyn Chen were unrelenting on their drives to the hoop. Hayes was one of the Valkyries’ top scorers with 14 points.
Atlanta might have liked having that kind of depth themselves considering Rhyne Howard ended the first half with four fouls. But Atlanta had some other things going well for them. Angel Reese scored 30 points and had 16 rebounds.
The game stayed tight until Atlanta began building up a lead late in the third quarter. They went into the fourth leading the Valkyries by 14 points.
Was this right where the Valkyries wanted them? No. Not this time.
The Valkyries took shot after shot that seemed to just bounce out of the hoop. They turned the ball over – 18 times in the game.
Down by 18 points in the fourth, Hayes drove to the basket for an and one. The energy in Ballhalla soared, ready for an epic, impossible comeback. Then Hayes missed the one and Atlanta followed up with a three on the next play.
There were a few more moments when the crowd sounded like they still wanted to believe but this was not the Valkyries’ night.
Nevertheless, a committed G-S-V chant took over Ballhalla even as the clock ran out.