Two of the most intriguing teams in the WNBA met on Wednesday, as the Dallas Wings (9-6) finished a rough scheduling stretch of five games in nine days against the Golden State Valkyries (10-5) at the Chase Center. It went back and forth, but the Valkyries pulled out the 91-80 win behind 23 points from Gabby Williams. Arike Ogunbowale led the Wings with 21 points in the loss.
The Wings ran out to a lead as large as 12 points in the first quarter. Sug Sutton nailed her first 3-pointer in a Dallas uniform
on Bueckers’ fourth assist of the fourth quarter to put the Wings up 23-11 with 1:30 left in the opener. The Wings had it working on both ends of the floor early on and took a 26-17 lead after one.
But a 14-0 Valkyries run in the second quarter changed the tenor of the game in a hurry. Gabby Williams hit a pair of 3-pointers during the run, including one that gave the Valkyries their first lead of the game, 32-30 with 5:48 left before halftime. ThenKayla Thornton chimed in with another, forcing Wings head coach Jose Fernandez to take a timeout.
Williams, a rhythm scorer if there ever was one, found her rhythm against what had in the first quarter been a pretty stout Dallas defense. She shot 5-of-7 from the field for 13 points in the game’s first 16 minutes. Williams raised up for a jumper from the elbow over Bueckers with 3:55 left in the second to extend Golden State’s lead to 37-30. The Wings were in the ice box in the second quarter, shooting just 2-of-15 from the field, as the Valkyries completely flipped the game and built a 44-33 lead at the break.
The Wings went on an 8-0 run in the first minute and change of the second half to cut the Valkyries’ lead to 44-41, but Golden State continued to shoot the ball well and extended the lead back up to 11, up 60-49 on Tiffany Hayes’ first 3-ball of the game with 3:14 left in the third.
Dallas wasn’t done, though. The Wings finished the third quarter on a 13-4 run of their own, including big 3-point answers from Fudd, Bueckers and Sutton at the third quarter buzzer to cut the Golden State lead to 64-62 heading into the fourth.
But sometimes it’s just not your night. The Valkyries went on another 17-5 run early in the fourth quarter to go up 81-69 on Caitlyn Chen’s driving leaner with 5:15 left to play. Her 7-of-10 shooting night put her in line for her best game of the season off the bench (15 points). Golden State just refused to miss in the game’s biggest moments, and Dallas looked tired at times down the stretch.
The Wings gave Golden State extra possessions by failing to secure defensive rebounds and were beaten 9-2 on the offensive glass in the loss.
FuDD — defensive demon
Everybody knows about Fudd’s prolific shooting, and when she was drafted, her scouting reports all read “plus defender.” But I don’t think any of us realized what kind of perimeter defense the Wings would be adding by selecting Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. She’s been a certified defensive demon — a perimeter pest — of late.
On Wednesday, she pilfered three steals in the first quarter. Her first came less than two minutes into the game and led to Jessica Shepard’s first bucket of the contest — a short jumper that gave the Wings the early 4-2 lead. Then, Fudd recorded steals on consecutive possessions later in the quarter, one of which led to another bucket from Shepard with four minutes left in the frame that increased the Dallas lead to 13-6.
Fudd nabbed two steals and blocked two shots in Saturday’s 84-83 loss at the Portland Fire. She blocked three shots in the game prior — an 85-70 win over the Phoenix Mercury. And she’s doing all this on the defensive end while shooting it at a 52.7% clip and connecting on 38.9% of her 3-point attempts so far in her rookie year.
Fudd grabbed her fourth steal of the game early in the third as the Wings began to chip away at Golden State’s halftime lead. She took a fifth — and a new career-high mark — late in the fourth as the Wings tried frantically to come back. Her fifth steal tied a Wings franchise rookie record for steals in a single game. Fudd finished with 10 points in the loss.
In the freezer
The Wings went ice cold in the second quarter. Dallas opened the second by shooting 1-of-11 from the floor, scoring just five points in the frame’s first eight minutes. Shepard, who started the game by making her first five shot attempts, made a tough basket underneath with 1:48 left in the first half. That ended a stretch of more than six minutes without a field goal for the Wings. Chen and Kiah Stokes each converted layups for Golden State in the half’s final seconds to extend the Valkyries’ lead to 44-33 going into halftime.
Golden State outscored Dallas 27-7 in the second to flip the script and wrest control of the game away from the Wings. They did it by holding onto the ball. The Wings forced six Golden State turnovers in the first quarter, but zero in the second.
Bueckers and Fudd combined to shoot just 1-of-10 from the field in the first half. Bueckers finished the game with 15 points and eight assists.
Meet the moment
So. Things didn’t go your way. “What are you going to do about it?” must have been the halftime theme, because the Wings got right to work chiseling away at the lead when the third quarter started.
Fudd knocked down a perimeter jumper on Dallas’ first possession of the half before Ogunbowale scored on a three-point play and a 3-pointer the next time down to pull the Wings to within 44-41 just 1:11 into the third.
Dallas looked lost again for a stretch in the middle of the third, as The Valkyries once again built an 11-point lead. You could excuse the Wings for being tired at this point, in the middle of their fifth game in nine days, but they weren’t done.
The Wings finished the third quarter on a 13-4 run, including big 3-pointers from Fudd, Bueckers and Sutton, whose 30-footer at the third quarter buzzer made it a 64-62 game with the fourth quarter looming.
It’s time to talk about it
Free throws, y’all. Dallas basically lost Saturday’s game at Portland at the free-throw line, making just 18-of-26 (69%) at the stripe in a one-point loss.
As Fudd missed both ends of a trip to the line early in Wednesday’s fourth quarter with the Wings trailing Golden State by five, the elephant entered the building. The Wings officially have a problem with freebies — especially in the fourth quarter of close games.
The Wings came into Wednesday’s game 10th in the WNBA in free-throw percentage, at 77.3% on the year. They made just 11-of-18 (68.8%) against the Valkyries on Wednesday.
As Dallas tries to build a winner from the ground up, the Wings have to get a handle on converting the easiest shots the game offers them.
