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WNBA: Liberty hold off Valkyries to remain unbeaten

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Breanna Stewart scored 27 points and Sabrina Ionescu added 24 to help the unbeaten New York Liberty hold on for an 82-77 victory over the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday night.

The teams met on Tuesday and New York routed expansion Golden State 95-67, jumping to a 17-point lead in the first quarter. The Valkyries were much more competitive two days later, giving the defending champions all they could handle.

New York took a 78-77 lead in the back-and-forth affair on two free throws by Stewart with 1:35 left. Golden State had a few chances to retake the lead but missed three 3-pointers in the next 35 seconds. After a timeout, the Valkyries then had a 5-second call on the inbounds, giving the Liberty the ball back with 43.6 seconds left.

The Liberty (5-0) then ran the clock down on the next possession before Natasha Cloud drove the lane for a layup to make it 80-77 with 24 seconds left.

Golden State (2-3) had one last chance, but Cecilia Zandalasini missed a potential tying 3-pointer and Cloud hit two free throws.

Janelle Salaün led the Valkyries with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

 

Vandersloot sets records in Sky’s win

Kamilla Cardoso scored a career-high 23 points and Courtney Vandersloot set franchise records for points and field goals as the Chicago Sky beat the Dallas Wings 97-92 for their first win.

Arike Ogunbowale scored a season-high 37 points for the Wings and hit a 3-pointer that gave Dallas a 92-91 lead with 2:11 remaining. But Ogunbowale went 0 for 3 the rest of the way and the Sky closed with a 6-0 run.

Ogunbowale, who entered the game averaging a career-low 13.8 points on 30% shooting, shot 14 of 25 from the field and 6 of 12 from 3-point range.

Vandersloot finished with 13 points, nine assists and four steals. She moved past Allie Quigley into first in franchise history with 3,728 points and 1,394 field goals. Quigley scored 3,273 points and had 1,386 field goals for the Sky from 2013-22.