By Janie McCauley Associated Press
October 2, 2026 - 8:55 pm
SAN FRANCISCO — Gabby Williams scored 19 points and deed a go-ahead 17-footer with 1:17 remaining, and the Golden State Valkyries won a precocious replay reappraisal to decorativeness a rally from 16 points down and bushed the Dallas Wings 77-73 connected Friday nighttime successful a chaotic deciding Game 3 of their first-round WNBA playoff series.
The Valkyries volition conscionable the Las Vegas Aces successful the semfinals opening astatine 1 p.m. Sunday. Game 1 is Sunday astatine rocking Ballhalla with the team’s deafening, violet-crazed location assemblage astatine Chase Center.
With 13.1 seconds near and Golden State starring by one, Williams jumped backmost inbounds to corral her ain miss connected a play that was primitively ruled Dallas’ ball, but Valkyries manager Natalie Nakase — who moments earlier had fallen to her knees connected the sideline earlier being helped up — successfully challenged the call. Nakase walked disconnected the tribunal escorted by a subordinate of her unit aft the last buzzer, holding her look arsenic the squad celebrated astatine midcourt.
Arike Ogunbowale knocked down an off-balance jumper with 3:13 to play that enactment Dallas up by 5 and finished with 30 points to travel up a 45-point show successful the Wings’ overtime triumph Wednesday nighttime astatine home.
Williams scored each but 2 of her points aft halftime. Veronica Burton had 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Burton’s layup with 8:19 to play pulled the Valkyries wrong 61-59, Williams deed 2 3-pointers precocious successful the 3rd and they some willed Golden State into the best-of-five semifinals.
Tiffany Hayes scored 18 points disconnected the bench, Kaila Charles deed a tying 3-pointer with 6:51 near and Kiah Stokes pulled down 13 rebounds.
The second-seeded Valkyries won a playoff bid for the archetypal time. Last year, they became the archetypal enlargement squad to scope the playoffs successful its inaugural season.
Paige Bueckers had 17 points with six assists but changeable lone 3 for 14 for Dallas, making each 10 of her escaped throws.
The Valkyries missed 3 consecutive 3s and 9 shots successful a enactment wide to commencement the 3rd 4th arsenic Dallas utilized a 9-0 tally to instrumentality its largest pb astatine 53-37. Golden State pulled wrong 59-54 heading into the last 10 minutes.
Ogunbowale was 11 for 21 aft scoring a playoff-record 45 points successful the Wings’ 108-100 overtime triumph Wednesday night.
That prompted Nakase to state earlier the game: “We made a committedness to ourselves we are going to play the champion 4 quarters of our lives.”
She said the Valkyries didn’t admit themselves that crippled — adjacent though the squad had scored 100 oregon much points successful the archetypal 2 matchups, including 104-80 successful the bid opener past Sunday.
———
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
English (US)·