After watching their initial bid to clinch the franchise’s first playoff series win vanish in an act of Arike Ogunbowale magic, the Golden State Valkyries get another chance against the Dallas Wings in Game 3 on Friday night in San Francisco.
Thanks to a 24-point home win in Game 1 and Ogunbowale’s 45-point explosion in Game 2 in Dallas, the clubs will meet one last time in the best-of-three first-round series to determine who advances to the WNBA semifinals and who turns in their uniforms.
The second-seeded Valkyries were on the doorstep of a sweep before deciding not to foul with a three-point lead and time running down Wednesday in Dallas. Despite a tight defensive effort, they watched Ogunbowale nail an improbable, game-tying 3-pointer from the left corner with 4.1 seconds left, forcing overtime.
The four-time All-Star then poured in 11 of her playoff-record 45 points in the extra five minutes, single-handedly outscoring the Valkyries for a 108-100 win that sent the series back to where it started in San Francisco.
In the end, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase believed her team could have done more to prevent the historic night.
“I’m never going to be happy after a loss, especially when it doesn’t show our identity — and our identity is defense,” she told reporters after the loss. “So we got to lock in. We have to be smarter; we have to be more connected. We got to communicate at a higher volume, especially when they’re trying to break some of our defensive coverages. That’s what we got to make sure to look at on film, regroup and be ready to go.”
The Valkyries lost despite a record-setting performance of their own. Gabby Williams became the first player in WNBA postseason history to record at least 36 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a playoff game.
It wasn’t enough, even after Paige Bueckers struggled through a 3-for-13, 10-point night for the seventh-seeded Wings.
Bueckers, who enjoyed a near-perfect shooting night (9-for-10) the last time the teams met in California, hopes she and San Francisco’s basketball fans will get another chance to see Ogunbowale — lauded as the Stephen Curry of the women’s game — perform Friday.
“She’s definitely different,” Bueckers said of Ogunbowale. “It reminds me … I watch Steph all the time. Everybody in the world knows he’s the best shooter in the world and he still finds a way to get like 10 (3-point) attempts off a game, shooting at a 40% clip. So Arike and Steph is a really good conversation to be in.”
–Field Level Media
