Australian rookie Izzy Borlase has helped the Atlanta Dream to their historic first WNBA finals victory, shining in a series-levelling 79\u201365 triumph over Golden State.<\/p>\n
Dream superstar Angel Reese was a dominant figure in game two at San Francisco’s Chase Center on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), posting a monster double-double with 30 points and 16 rebounds.<\/p>\n
The Dream’s win was their first in a title-deciding best-of-seven series, after being swept in their three previous appearances and losing game one against the Valkyries this year.<\/p>\n
Coach Karl Smesko’s team will enjoy home-court advantage in the next two games as they chase their first WNBA championship.<\/p>\n
Borlase could play a key role after being entrusted with almost 17 minutes on court in game two, finishing with two points, one assist, one steal and one block.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old missed all four field-goal attempts in the first half, but sank a pair of free throws and made a huge play to help Atlanta to a 39\u201337 lead at the main break.<\/p>\n
Borlase’s block on Veronica Burton late in the second period led to an Allisha Gray (18 points) triple and forced the Valkyries to call a time-out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It drew huge praise from Reese, who made a beeline for her teammate and celebrated with a chest bump and double-fist to the chest.<\/p>\n
Atlanta seized control in a dominant third quarter and took a 60\u201346 lead after Jordin Canada (13 points) banked a long-range three on the buzzer.<\/p>\n
Overrun after leading late in game one, the Dream held firm this time to record their breakthrough finals victory.<\/p>\n
Reese became the third player in WNBA history to have at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a finals game.<\/p>\n
Another Australian Opals star, Miela Sowah, sat on the bench for the Valkyries and will remain there throughout the finals due to her restricted status as a development player.<\/p>\n
AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian rookie Izzy Borlase has helped the Atlanta Dream to their historic first WNBA finals victory, shining in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[56200,38558,64,63,726,16308,29446,69271,85,5941],"class_list":["post-934725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-angel-reese","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-finals","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-isobel-borlase","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}