DHJ Quick Take: Dallas Wings Fall to Golden State Valkyries After 27-7 Second Quarter
The Dallas Wings built an early 12-point lead but were outscored 27-7 in the second quarter and never recovered, falling 91-80 to the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center.
- How did the Dallas Wings lose? Golden State’s 27-7 second quarter and a 41-25 edge on the glass erased an early 12-point Dallas lead.
- Who led the Dallas Wings? Arike Ogunbowale scored 21 points and Jessica Shepard posted 14 points and 10 rebounds for her WNBA-leading 10th double-double.
- Why does the loss matter? It dropped Dallas to 9-6 and closed Commissioner’s Cup play in the middle of a demanding stretch of five games in nine days.
- What’s next? The Wings return home to host the Chicago Sky on Saturday night.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Dallas Wings raced to a 12-point lead, then unraveled in a second quarter they will want to forget, falling 91-80 to the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday night at Chase Center. The Valkyries outscored Dallas 27-7 over the game’s middle 10 minutes, owned the glass, and answered every comeback the Wings mounted the rest of the way.
Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-3 from 3, her seventh 20-point game of the season and one of four Wings in double figures. Jessica Shepard added 14 points and 10 rebounds for her WNBA-leading 10th double-double. The Wings dropped to 9-6, while Golden State improved to 10-5.
Dallas Wings Race to a 12-Point First-Quarter Lead
Dallas opened with its starting five of Paige Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Azzi Fudd, Awak Kuier, and Shepard for the second straight game, and the group jumped on Golden State early. Kuier scored the game’s first basket, and Shepard took over from there. An Ogunbowale 3-pointer forced a Golden State timeout with Dallas ahead 11-6 with 4:30 left, and the Wings pushed it to 13-6 out of the break.
Dallas shot 11-of-17 in the opening quarter and led by as many as 12, carried almost entirely by Shepard, who made all five of her first-quarter attempts for 10 points and matched her career best for field goals made in a quarter without a miss. The Wings took a 26-17 edge into the second.
Golden State Valkyries Erupt for a 27-7 Second Quarter
The game turned in a hurry. A 14-5 Golden State run cut the Dallas lead to 30-28 with 6:46 left in the half and forced a Wings timeout. The Valkyries kept coming, grabbing their first lead on a Gabby Williams 3-pointer and stretching it to 35-30 on a Kayla Thornton triple, part of a 14-0 surge that prompted another Dallas timeout with 5:10 to go.
The shooting dried up completely for Dallas, which went 2-for-15 from the field in the period, including 1-for-6 from 3-point range. Golden State closed the half by winning the quarter 27-7 and led 44-33 at the break, holding the Wings to their fewest points in any quarter this season and handing them their largest single-quarter deficit since 2024. Shepard carried team highs of 12 points and 6 rebounds into halftime, while Ogunbowale and Sug Sutton added 6 apiece.
“They were knocking down threes, being aggressive on the boards, guarding,” Ogunbowale said. “We were getting one shot, they were getting rebounds and going. The ball wasn’t going in the basket for us, but they were turning up on that and being really aggressive, making extra passes and knocking it down.”
Dallas Wings Storm Back After Halftime
The Wings answered with their best stretch of the night. Dallas opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run, with Fudd, Kuier, and Ogunbowale all scoring, to pull within 44-41. Golden State pushed the margin back to 11 with 2:16 remaining, but Dallas finished the quarter on a 13-4 run capped by a Sutton buzzer-beating 3 that made it 64-62 entering the fourth.
Dallas shot 55.6% in the period and went 4-of-5 from 3, with Ogunbowale scoring a quarter-high 8 points.
“Defense. We got stops. That was the biggest thing,” Ogunbowale said. “And then, in the fourth quarter, we couldn’t string enough together, and they were knocking them down. But that third quarter was definitely about defense.”
Bueckers pointed to the same priority when Golden State threatened to pull away.
“Just the little things, getting into our gaps, guarding, sitting down and guarding, having a sense of pride on the defensive end so we’re not constantly in scramble rotations,” Bueckers said. “When shots aren’t falling, we need to rely on our defense.”
Golden State Valkyries Hold Off the Late Push
Dallas could not carry the momentum into the fourth. The Wings went scoreless for the first two-plus minutes as Golden State pushed the lead to 71-62 with 7:50 left, and the Valkyries eventually led by as many as 12 at 81-69. A 7-0 Dallas run trimmed it to 81-76 with 3:58 to play, but Golden State had an answer every time, and the Wings got no closer than 5 the rest of the way. Ogunbowale scored 7 of her points in the period and Bueckers added 6.
Veronica Burton and Bueckers collided going for a loose ball with 58.1 seconds left and both went down hard, but each was able to stand and stay in the game.
Fernandez did not fault the looks his team generated.
“I thought we got good shots,” Fernandez said. “The ball doesn’t go in the basket, but we’ve got to get down and grind and string stops together. I was happy with how we came out of the locker room in the third quarter and how we went into the fourth quarter. There were a bunch of times we got it down to five.”
Asked whether Golden State’s shifting coverages disrupted the offense, Jose Fernandez disagreed.
“I thought we got really good shots,” he said. “A lot of the shots we missed were uncontested. We got the ball where we wanted to get it. We missed a lot of shots that we normally make.”
Rebounding and Free Throws Decide It
Golden State controlled the boards 41-25 and converted a 9-2 edge in offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points. Dallas grabbed just 2 offensive rebounds, both by Shepard, and went without a second-chance point for the first time since 2021. The Valkyries also lived at the line, making 21-of-27 free throws to the Wings’ 11-of-16 and attempting 11 more than Dallas.
Points in the paint finished even at 32 apiece, and the Wings actually won the turnover battle, forcing 13 Golden State giveaways and scoring 21 points off them while holding a 9-6 edge in fast-break points.
“That’s one thing we talked about, rebounding,” Fernandez said. “The nine offensive rebounds to our two … They came up with every 50/50 ball. They won the glass by a big number. A lot of that is effort stuff.”
Azzi Fudd Anchors the Backcourt in a Cold Shooting Night
Fudd tied the Wings’ single-game rookie record with 5 steals and logged a team-high 37 minutes, though her shot would not fall, as she finished 4-of-13 for 10 points. Bueckers had a similarly difficult night offensively, going 5-of-13 for 15 points while handing out 8 assists and going 4-of-4 from the line. Sutton, in his second game with Dallas, scored 9 points on 3-of-4 shooting with 2-of-2 from 3.
Off the bench, Alanna Smith scored 5 points and Aziaha James added 2 points and 2 steals in limited minutes. Smith and James were the only Wings to finish with a positive plus-minus, at plus-5 and plus-4.
The trip marked Fudd’s first visit as a pro to Chase Center, home of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, whose brand she joined in November 2021. Curry, a two-time NBA MVP, offered his resources during Fudd’s rehab from right knee surgery last year.
Golden State Valkyries Get Balanced Scoring
Williams led all scorers with 25 points and reached the line 12 times, making 9, in the Valkyries’ fourth straight win. Golden State placed five players in double figures and got 43 points from its bench, paced by a career night from Kaitlyn Chen, who scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Salaün added 12, Tiffany Hayes chipped in 10, Burton posted 11 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists, and Thornton finished with 8 points and 11 rebounds. Kiah Stokes grabbed 7 boards.
Chen faced former UConn teammates in Bueckers and Fudd, and Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said before the game that Chen had offered scouting insight on the pair as Golden State built its game plan.
Bueckers, who played alongside Chen at UConn, credited her growth.
“She has one of the best layup packages I’ve ever seen,” Bueckers said, pointing to Chen’s confidence and ability to get to the rim.
Fernandez echoed the assessment.
“I thought Kaitlyn Chen was really, really good for them tonight,” he said. “She got downhill, made good decisions, and sprayed the ball where it needed to go.”
He also singled out the challenge of containing Williams.
“She was tough to guard,” Fernandez said. “She just gets downhill. They run that dribble-drive action, flip it back to her, and she gets downhill … she’s able to spray the ball out to shooters, and they’ve got players who can knock down shots.”
Schedule and the Road Ahead
The loss came in the middle of a demanding stretch of five games in nine days that has twice sent Dallas to the West Coast and back, and it followed a 96-66 rout of the defending-champion Las Vegas Aces on Monday.
Fernandez declined to lean on the schedule as an excuse.
“It’s five in nine, right? But there are a lot of teams in this league that go through stretches of playing four games on the road,” he said. “You just have to find a way to get stops and find a way to compete. It’s got to mean more for us to take that next step.”
He framed the night as a test for a young backcourt built around Bueckers and Fudd.
“You learn a lot from wins and from losses. It’s how you respond,” Fernandez said. “I thought we came out of the locker room and responded. Now we’ll get back and have an opportunity to respond at home against Chicago. That’s very important.”
The loss also closed Commissioner’s Cup play for both teams. Dallas wraps the group stage having committed $15,000 to Young Leaders, Strong City, a Dallas-based youth leadership organization.
Up Next
The Wings return home to host the Chicago Sky on Saturday night at College Park Center. The game airs nationally on CBS, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. CT.
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