The Valkyries beat the Dallas Wings on Friday night in a comeback thriller that sends Golden State on to the second round of the playoffs. After trailing by as many as 16 points in the third quarter, the home team clawed their way back to a victory, 77 – 73.
The Valkyries advance to the semi-finals after the Game 3 victory, and will host Game 1 against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday.
It was a sloppy and low-scoring start to the game on Friday night. Turnovers, fouls, players on the floor, balls whipped out of bounds. The Wings took an early lead.
Like Game 1, Tiffany Hayes’ entry onto the court felt like a turning point. Hayes made two near-impossible drives to the basket putting the Valkyries within five points toward the end of the first quarter.
Golden State’s shots, though, were not falling. And the Wings lead kept growing. They were up seven at halftime, up 16 midway through the third.
Then, the comeback.
Golden State grabbed balls out of the air like this team of hoopers has never rebounded before all season. Kiah Stokes had a game high 13 of them. And it wasn’t just the bigs — point guard Veronica Burton got ten rebounds too. Burton played so hard on both ends of the court, keeping the team in it, that Coach Natalie Nakase could barely take her out of the game.
The Valks closed the gap to five points by the end of the third. Then four. Then two.
Ballhalla was going wild.
Nothing got the crowd louder than a miss or a foul by Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale, who dropped 45 points on the Valkyries in Dallas in game 2. Not even a Valkyries’ three could top how the crowd relished Ogunbowale being stopped.
It wasn’t till the fourth quarter that the Valkyries tied the game, eventually taking the lead with just under five minutes to go.
The game went down to the wire but Golden State got the W. Their season is not over yet.
That was too close, kids. The Veronica Burton 3 gave me hope too. The Dallas 20 to 0 run was rough, but the Valks zero points nearly 4 minutes in the 3rd will not do verse the upcoming Aces. Go Valks!!
As Meg reports, rebounding was key. But true to form, defense won again. After six plus quarters of getting shredded,the D woke up, led by Veronica Burton. When they got stops, the shots started falling, including thhree massive 3s by Gabby Williams. But this game really showed the tenacious brilliance of Burton and smarts of Natalie Nakase.