Cecilia Zandalasini scored 20 points, Veronica Burton racked up a season-high 13 assists without a turnover and the Golden State Valkyries smothered the host New York Liberty 79-60 on Thursday.
Golden State (28-11) won its third game in a row and completed a back-to-back road sweep of Connecticut and New York. Gabby Williams contributed 16 points, Tiffany Hayes had 12 off the bench and Kiah Stokes added a game-high nine rebounds while bolstering the Valkyries’ defense.
The Liberty (23-16) were held to their season low in points, managing 30 in each half while shooting 30.2% from the field. New York had a six-game home winning streak snapped.
Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 18 points and seven rebounds. She made 4 of 6 attempts from outside. Breanna Stewart scored 16 points, but no other New York player managed more than seven.
For Golden State, Zandalasini and Williams buried four 3-pointers apiece as Golden State shot 13-for-33 from the arc and 42.3% overall.
After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Valkyries clamped down, holding the Liberty to 3-of-12 shooting for 11 points and outrebounding them 13-5 in the second frame.
A 9-2 run punctuated by Zandalasini’s 3-ball gave the Valkyries their first double-digit lead at 35-25 with 3:24 left in the first half. Zandalasini knocked down another triple and Hayes made one in the final minute for a 42-30 lead at intermission.
New York had it within 10 early in the third quarter before Burton went on a personal 7-0 run. The Liberty called a timeout when Burton’s 28-foot trey gave the Valkyries their largest lead yet at 51-34.
Rebekah Gardner and Rebecca Allen helped claw the Liberty back within 10, but in the final minute Kaitlyn Chen shook off 6-foot-11 Han Xu and hit a stepback from 20 feet to make it 59-47 Golden State entering the fourth.
The Valkyries netted the first six points of the fourth quarter for an 18-point advantage and sailed to the finish. Burton recorded her last five assists across Golden State’s eight field goals in the final frame.
–Field Level Media
