Playoff bound! Valkyries clinch postseason spot with win over Wings

The Valkyries have proven time and again that when the stakes are the highest they deliver They delivered in tight fourth quarters on the road in hostile environments and in moments when their inexperience was supposed to catch up to them And on Thursday night they delivered the biggest win of the season In front of its st consecutive sold out crowd of the season Golden State clawed its way back from a sluggish start to defeat the league-worst Dallas Wings - to guarantee its spot into the postseason The Valkyries are the first WNBA expansion crew to make the playoffs in their first season Janelle Sala n led the Valkyries with points Carla Leite came off the bench and scored points and dished out five assists Monique Billings added points Paige Bueckers led Dallas with points Former Archbishop Mitty and Stanford standout Haley Jones had Golden State is the Bay Area s second consecutive expansion company to make the playoffs in its inaugural season joining Bay FC which made the NWSL postseason last year The Valkyries were thoroughly outplayed in the first half Golden State usually opens games whipping the ball around and making teams uncomfortable with its aggressive style of defense But the young Wings weren t phased Jones torched the Valkyries for points in the first half while Dallas held the home unit to shooting and forced eight turnovers At halftime Dallas led - The Wings continued to pour it on early in the third quarter as they built their advantage to as big as behind a barrage of mid-range jumpers from Bueckers But the Valkyries shifted the momentum of the competition through Leite Leite scored six points in the quarter and put constant pressure on the rim The rookie guard took control of the offense and initiated every play for the Valkyries Golden State cut the deficit to four going into the fourth quarter as the crowd at Chase Center continued to feed the gang resource Related Articles Why Laver Cup conflict looms over prospective Valkyries postseason home event Valkyries sign another athlete to hardship contract Monique Billings return brings capacity depth to surging Valkyries Valkyries keep defending champion Liberty in check extend win streak to four Valkyries Veronica Burton more than feel-good story should be recognized as one of WNBA s elite In the final period both teams traded baskets until the final seconds The Valkyries continued to play through Leite But the decisive bucket came when Veronica Burton laid in a basket while getting fouled to extend the Valkyries lead to five with seconds left Dallas opened the meeting hot going on a - run through the first three minutes of the first quarter The Valkyries will have their final home event of the season on Saturday against the Minnesota Lynx