Cecilia Zandalasini scored 18 points against her former team, and the Golden State Valkyries relied on a second-half surge for an 80-66 win over the Minnesota Lynx on Monday night in Minneapolis.
Gabby Williams scored 15 points for Golden State (26-11), which ended a two-game skid. Veronica Burton finished with 14 points, nine assists and five steals. Tiffany Hayes (14) and Janelle Salaun (12) contributed double figures off the bench.
Natasha Howard had 13 points and seven rebounds to lead Minnesota (31-8), whose six-game winning streak ended. Kayla McBride finished with 12 points, half of which came on free throws, and Napheesa Collier had nine points and seven boards.
The Valkyries prevented the Lynx from securing the No. 1 playoff seed. Minnesota’s lead on second-place Golden State shrank to four games.
Poor shooting plagued the Lynx throughout the evening. McBride missed nine of 11 shots from the field, Olivia Miles missed nine of 12 shots and Howard missed five of eight. Miles finished with eight points and five assists as the Lynx were outshot 43.7% to 35.6%.
Golden State outscored Minnesota 46-34 in the second half.
The score was 36-all when Golden State went on a 6-0 run to take the lead. Zandalasini scored four points during the run with two free throws and a jump shot.
By the end of the third quarter, the Valkyries led 55-48. They led by as many as 10, and after Minnesota pushed back Williams made one of two free throws with 14.7 seconds left in the quarter.
Golden State outscored Minnesota 25-18 in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Burton drained a 3-pointer to restore the Valkyries’ double-digit lead at 61-51 with 7:33 to go.
Both teams struggled to find a rhythm on offense during the first half.
Golden State held on to a 17-16 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Valkyries closed the session on a 5-0 run thanks to a 3-pointer by Burton with one minute remaining and a driving layup by Salaun with 0.2 seconds to go.
The Valkyries outscored the Lynx 17-16 again in the second quarter to take a 34-32 lead into halftime. Midway through the quarter, Golden State went on a 9-0 run that included a 3-pointer by Hayes, jumpers by Williams and Burton and a pull-up jumper by Zandalasini to make it 31-25 with 3:11 to play.
–Field Level Media
