{"id":792803,"date":"2026-07-30T06:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792803\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T06:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:15:16","slug":"valkyries-blow-second-half-lead-lose-in-phoenix-without-all-star-williams-the-press-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792803\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries blow second-half lead, lose in Phoenix without All-Star Williams \u2013 The Press Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Valkyries<\/a> lost hold of a 13-point lead in the third quarter to the Phoenix Mercury in a 91-89 loss on Wednesday night in the return from the All-Star break<\/a> for both teams.<\/p>\n

A pair of Phoenix runs in the second half turned the game around.<\/p>\n

The Valkyries led 64-51 after Laeticia Amihere made a layup with 1:45 left in the third quarter, but Kaleah Copper led a 9-0 run to tighten it entering the fourth. An 11-0 run led by Alyssa Thomas midway through the final quarter gave the Mercury the lead, and they never trailed again.<\/p>\n

Phoenix shot 43 free throws to the Valkyries\u2019 19 as Golden State was called for 34 fouls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be able to adjust to the way the game is being called,\u201d Golden State guard Veronica Burton said. \u201cThere were a lot of fouls; we did foul a lot, so we need to be able to be aggressive and be physical without fouling, keeping our composure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cecilia Zandalasini fouled out with 16 points on 6-of-17 shooting for Golden State (19-9). Burton added 15 points and Kaila Charles had 10 points and a season-high 10 rebounds, her second career double-double and her first since 2021. Janelle Sala\u00fcn made two of her five 3-point attempts, reaching 69 made 3s on the season to break the WNBA\u2019s record for a bench player.<\/p>\n

Charles started in the place of All-Star Gabby Williams, who sat out the first game after the league\u2019s break for conditioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great experience for us to have games like this on the road, battling,\u201d coach Natalie Nakase told reporters postgame. \u201cI thought everyone stayed intently into it towards the end. I just would love a better start. We just have to start better and we have to defend without fouling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas had 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, Copper scored 27 and DeWanna Bonner added 17 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks for the Mercury (11-18). They have won three straight following a five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

Copper was called for her sixth foul with 1:45 to play, the Mercury challenged and, after replay review, the call was upheld. Nine seconds later, Kayla Thornton hit a 3-pointer that tied it at 82, but Bonner answered with two free throws with 1:27 remaining to take the lead for good.<\/p>\n

Sala\u00fcn had a chance to tie it after being fouled on a 3-point attempt late, but missed her last free throw of the trio. With 5.6 seconds left, she was fouled again on a 3 with Golden State trailing by four, but made all three free throws, banking in the third to miss out on a rebound opportunity.<\/p>\n

Golden State, which lost at home to Washington last time out, has lost back-to-back games, falling a half-game behind second-place Las Vegas. The Valkyries return home Sunday night for a game against the Toronto Tempo, the expansion team\u2019s first visit to the Bay Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Valkyries lost hold of a 13-point lead in the third quarter to the Phoenix Mercury in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[4804,99,434],"class_list":["post-792803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}