Former Northwestern guard Veronica Burton and the Golden State Valkyries were crowned WNBA champions Saturday night, defeating the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center. Burton scored 10 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and added five assists in the league’s first-ever Game 7, becoming the first former Wildcat to win a WNBA or NBA title.
Burton, the first AP All-American
in Northwestern women’s basketball history, was a three-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and the 2022 WBCA Defensive Player of the Year.
Burton shot 3-for-13 from the field in the Halloween game but made all four of her free throws and finished plus-7 in 39 minutes.
Burton opened the game for Golden State with a ten-foot fadeaway shot. She scored the last two buckets of the first with a turnaround jumper with just 3.8 seconds left, putting the Valkyries up 14-11.
Golden State slowed down in the second quarter and trailed 37-28 midway through the third. Gabby Williams brought them back, scoring 15 of her 30 points in the quarter to put the Valkyries back in front, 45-44 at the end of the fourth.
Tied at 57 in the fourth, Burton dished it to Williams for a 31-foot 3-pointer with just over two minutes left to take the lead, which they never gave up after. Burton would score the final two points of the game on two made free throws to seal the win for the franchise.
Burton was drafted by Dallas seventh overall in the 2022 draft and was waived in 2024. Golden State drafted her in its expansion draft, and she was named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2025. The Valkyries won the series 4-3 after trailing 2-1, claiming their first title in just their second season.
