{"id":453075,"date":"2026-10-01T10:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453075\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:38:34","slug":"golden-state-valkyries-cant-stop-arike-ogunbowale-in-wnba-playoff-classic-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453075\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries can’t stop Arike Ogunbowale in WNBA playoff classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2013 The craziest game the Valkyries<\/a> have played all season did not go in their favor, and now their backs are against the wall.<\/p>\n

Gabby Williams\u2019 best game as a Valkyrie didn\u2019t matter because one of Dallas\u2019 stars went off like no one has against the Valkyries all year, as the Wings beat Golden State 108-100 in overtime in Game 2 of their opening-round playoff series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arike Ogunbowale, who scored a WNBA-playoff record 45 points, hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 93 with 4.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter after the two teams traded haymakers throughout the quarter. After an offensive foul, a coach\u2019s challenge and a locked-up jump ball, the game went to overtime, where Dallas outscored the Valkyries 15-8.<\/p>\n

Williams scored a career-high 36 points with a career-high seven assists while Kaila Charles had 14 points off the bench and Kayla Thornton added 13 for the highest-scoring Golden State game of the year. The 108 points conceded were the most the Valkyries have allowed in their two-year history.<\/p>\n

Ogunbowale fired an off-balance 3-pointer to begin overtime, matched by Williams\u2019 triple with 2:26. A Tiffany Hayes loose ball foul after the trey turned into a flagrant on her and a tech against Ogunbowale, who pushed Hayes in response. Ogunbowale hit her two free throws and Hayes kept it tied at 100, while the Valkyries kept the ball.<\/p>\n

But Thornton missed and Ogunbowale hit from deep on the next possession, which Golden State did not match this time.<\/p>\n

\u201c108 points, that\u2019s completely uncalled for,\u201d Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. \u201cSo I think, yeah, I can communicate and demand more in timeouts quicker.\u201c<\/p>\n

Williams looked as locked in as she has been in a Valkyries uniform. She had 13 points in the first quarter alone, including a crowd-silencing 3-pointer right after Paige Bueckers had cut the deficit to four. She then drew a foul with a tough layup around Jessica Shepard to earn an and-one.<\/p>\n

Dallas tied it at 22 before Hayes hit a pair of free throws and a late-quarter floater to give the Valkyries a 26-23 lead out of the opening frame.<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries guard Veronica Burton (22) works to the basket as Dallas Wings guard Aziaha James (10) defends in the first half of a WNBA basketball first-round playoff game Wednesday Sept. 30, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second quarter was a different story.<\/p>\n

Janelle Salaun found Charles rushing to the rim and Veronica Burton repeated the same give-and-go with Salaun on the next possession to force a Dallas timeout just 56 seconds into the second quarter.<\/p>\n

But Dallas did not repeat its second-quarter performance from Game 1. Alysha Clark hit a glass 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to tie it at 41 near the end of the frame before Odyssey Sims gave the Wings their first lead on a floater, 43-41.<\/p>\n

The Wings led 50-45 at the half with a third 3-pointer from Clark to lead their 27-19 second frame. Dallas shot 6-for-8 from 3-point range, nullifying Golden State\u2019s hot offensive start.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur energy was different,\u201d Williams said of the performance. \u201cI didn\u2019t recognize this team. I don\u2019t think any of us did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thornton scored Golden State\u2019s first eight points of the third quarter while Dallas kept losing the ball, but its 3-point shooting stayed sharp with a 25-foot trey from Ogunbowale and a four-point play from Awak Kuier.<\/p>\n

Charles, who had been quiet all night, hit a 3-pointer in the left corner and followed it with a transition, buzzer-beating layup to give Golden State a 74-72 lead going into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The teams traded the lead from there; another Ogunbowale bucket matched by a clutch triple from Salaun. Two free throws from Ogunbowale followed by a Charles layup off an offensive board. Odyssey Sims made free throws before Salaun hit from the mid-range.<\/p>\n

Golden State went up by more than a single point with 3:32 left on a Williams fast-break assist to Charles, who forced a Dallas timeout.<\/p>\n

Bueckers missed badly on a 3-pointer that would have put the Wings ahead and Williams went down and scored a mid-range basket to tie her season-high 26th and 27th points. Ogunbowale brought the Wings within 1 with the clock running out and Williams banked two more free throws, giving Dallas one last chance to tie with 14.6 left to play.<\/p>\n

Golden State was noticeably sloppier with the ball than in Game 1, where it had a season-low four total turnovers. The Valkyries committed eight turnovers in the first half, which led to 12 Dallas points, mostly in transition where the Wings excel.<\/p>\n

But because the Valkyries\u2019 3-point shot was on, they got away with some of their turnover tendencies and uncharacteristically porous defense, but Ogunbowale\u2019s career showing buried them anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dog fight,\u201d Ogunbowale said. \u201cThey\u2019re a really, really, really tough team to play. Like a really tough team. They beat us every single time in the regular season, so like we knew we had to come out strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the second time the Valkyries went to overtime all season and the second time in just over a week after they lost in Portland in extra time on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

The Valkyries will face Dallas for Game 3 at Chase Center on Friday at 6 p.m., in an elimination game for both teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got one at home, and we got to bring our best,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cThat was not our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams (1) shoots over Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale, right, in the first half of a WNBA basketball first-round playoff game Wednesday Sept. 30, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2013 The craziest game the Valkyries have played all season did not go in their favor,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,1770,32792,13597,3607,154,14422],"class_list":["post-453075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-basketball","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}