The Golden State Valkyries won their first Golden State Valkyries WNBA title on Saturday, beating the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals in San Francisco, California, according to Al Jazeera. It is the franchise’s first championship, coming in its second season.
Gabby Williams scored 30 points, 28 of them in the second half, and was named Finals MVP, according to Al Jazeera. Veronica Burton made two free throws with 5.1 seconds left to set the final score, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
For Atlanta, Jordin Canada scored 18 points and Allisha Gray added 16, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Angel Reese scored 8 points. Atlanta shot 33.3 percent overall (23 of 69) and 6-for-30 from three-point range, according to Al Jazeera.
Kiah Stokes had 13 rebounds for Golden State and set a WNBA Finals record with 19 blocks across the series, according to Al Jazeera. It was her fourth title.
This was the first Game 7 in WNBA championship final history. The league moved to seven-game series starting last year. The Valkyries went 32-12 in the regular season after Williams was signed as a free agent. The Dream are winless in four WNBA Finals appearances.
The league reported a record 3.8 million fans attended 330 regular-season games, with average attendance up 21% from last year’s record high, according to CBS News US. These attendance figures are attributed to the WNBA and have not been independently verified in the available sources.
The Dream’s ownership said in a statement that concerns about the Finals schedule conflicting with NBA games at State Farm Arena were not given enough attention, according to CBS News US. Game 6 started at 12:30 p.m. because the Atlanta Hawks were scheduled to play at the arena that night, and the Dream’s usual home arena holds about 3,500. The WNBA has issued a statement responding to the Dream’s concerns, but no separate reply from the Dream to that statement appears in the sources.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league looks forward to another Finals experience in Atlanta, according to the available reporting. The Dream’s scheduling concerns remain unresolved in the sources. Reese’s rebound total differs across sources, so it is not included here.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.