SAN FRANCISCO: The Valkyries showed their strength in numbers on Sunday afternoon.
The Valkyries beat the Las Vegas Aces 71-60, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
Golden State held the reigning champion Aces to a season low of 60 points. A gritty defensive masterclass.
The Valkyries held four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson to 24 points while shooting 8-21 from the field. Aminata Gueye, an undrafted rookie, made an impact guarding Wilson in relief of Kiah Stokes. Gueye played incredible defense on Wilson and added 9 points in 13 minutes off the bench.
Valkyrie’s coach, Natalie Nakase, rotated Stokes and Gueye, who both played a key role in slowing down Wilson and forcing the rest of the Aces to pick up the slack.
“The secret’s right here,” Williams said while gesturing at Stokes during the postgame press conference.
Gabby Williams had 25 points to lead the Valkyries. She had a double-double with 11 rebounds and also had five assists. “Print this: Gabby Williams is the best player in the world,” Joe Lacob told ESPN after the game.
Safe to say the Valkyries’ owner loved what he saw on Sunday afternoon. Williams is the first Valkyries player to have a 25-10-5 playoff game.
Kaitlyn Chen also added 11 points off the bench.
Chen played most of the second half in relief for guard Veronica Burton, who left the game in the third quarter. Burton left the bench for a time after exiting the floor but returned for the remainder of the game later in the third quarter.
“She’s feeling great,” Nakase said of Burton. “Kaitlyn was fresh. I’m playing a fresh Kaitlyn Chen. Strength in numbers means you play your fresh players, because they’re all capable of playing.”
Burton played 37 minutes in Golden State’s win over Dallas on Friday. She only played 18 on Sunday.
Now, the biggest reason the Valkyries won was in the rebounding department. Golden State out-rebounded Las Vegas 52-25. This allowed the Valkyries to get out in transition and run the floor with ease.
Kiah Stokes led the way with 14 rebounds. Kayla Thornton had 11 rebounds as well.
“All we talked about for the last 48 hours was rebounding and blocking them out, and we did not do it,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “Period.”
Nakase called Stokes the game’s MVP on Sunday. “I know what I can bring to this team,” Stokes said. “So mentally, I was coming in like, ‘It’s now or never.’ This is the semis. There was no time to think too much about it. I just knew what I had to do, and shoutout to my teammates for trusting me. But this was definitely a team win.”
The Valkyries now shift their focus to Game 2. They will get a little bit of rest as Game 2 is on Wednesday night at 6:30 PM PST at Chase Center.
Leave a Reply