With the game in the balance, the Valkyries put the ball Cecilia Zandalasini to lead them to a win.
The Italian forward delivered.
With three seconds remaining, Zandalasini hit a turnaround baseline jumper to lead the Valkyries to a 77-75 win over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday.
After an embarrassing 31-point loss to the league-worst Connecticut Sun on Sunday, the Valkyries bounced back to improve to a 11-12.
“It was a great bounce back,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “We knew the physicality of Atlanta and their size was going to be a challenge, and I thought we did a hell of a job just team wise. … Credit to our girls for staying resilient.”
Zandalasini finished with a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds. Tiffany Hayes totaled 15 points and rookie point guard Carla Leite has 12.
Jordin Canada led Atlanta with a game-high 21 points and eight assists. Atlanta All-Star forward Rhyne Howard did not play in Tuesday’s game as she continued to recover from a knee injury that has kept her out all of July.
The Valkyries got off to a strong start buoyed by 11 first half points by Zandalasini. Golden State led by as much as seven in the first quarter, using an 11-0 run to take an early lead.
Atlanta closed the half strong as they outscored the Valkyries 10-2 in the final three minutes of the second quarter to tie the game at 39 going into halftime.
In the third, Golden State used another 11-0 run capped off by a fading three-point bank shot by Veronica Burton to give the Valkyries a 10-point lead.
Golden State went into the fourth quarter holding a 13-point lead, but quickly lost their advantage halfway through the period as Canada led Atlanta back into the game.
The two teams were tied at 75 with 25.7 seconds left in the game when the Valkyries got a key stop to get the ball with just under 15 seconds to go. Zandalasini hit the go-ahead jumper and on the ensuing possession, the Valkyries forced Dream center Brittney Griner into a tough fadeaway that clanked off the rim and into Golden State’s hands as the buzzer sounded.
“It was the action that the coach drew up on the board,” Zandalasini said of her game-winning shot. “Everybody just executed and I was able to get space and take that shot.”
The Valkyries will travel to Washington D.C. to play the Mystics on Thursday where they will look to get back to .500.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s win/loss:
Efficient night from beyond the arc
The Valkyries had one of their best 3-point shooting nights after slumping from beyond the arc for the better part of July.
Golden State shot 11-of-26 from the 3-point line in the win. Zandalasini, Hayes, Burton and rookie guard Carla Leite had at least two made 3s.
Hayes came into Tuesday’s game with the fourth-best 3-point percentage (42.9%) of players who have taken at least 70 3s this season.
New center rotation
For the second time this season, the Valkyries started two centers as Temi Fágbénlé and Monique Billings shared the frontcourt together.
The duo did a solid job mitigating the Dream’s double big lineup of Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones early as they held Atlanta’s twin towers to 10 points and three rebounds in the first half.
Billings returned to the lineup after missing the last two games with an ankle injury. She looked to have re-aggravated the same injury as she was ruled out of the second half.
Iliana Rupert came off the bench and struggled in her third game with the Valkyries. She went 0-for-4 from the field and grabbed four rebounds.
She started in place of Billings in the second half, but played just 17 minutes.
Zandalasini shows scoring repertoire
Zandalasini has carved out a role as the Valkyries’ sharpshooter off the bench, but she showed her full scoring skillset on Tuesday.
The Italian forward was more aggressive going to the rim as she had multiple strong finishes at the rim. She still found her groove from deep, knocking down 3-of-5 shots from deep, but showed she could be much more than just a shooter.
The Valkyries will need Zandalasini’s scoring punch going forward with All-Star forward Kayla Thornton out for the rest of the year with a knee injury.
Valkyries lose turnover battle
The Valkyries had an uncharacteristically bad game taking care of the ball.
They lost the turnover battle 13-6 with Burton, Hayes and Leite combining for 11 turnovers.
“There were mishaps on our end,” Hayes said. “Like we say though, it’s going to be our defense that’s going to do it for us. When it’s not that, everything starts to get a little stagnant and go off. So once we started to get stops again, it started to go our way at the end there.”
Odd stoppage
With under a minute left, the game was halted after a fan threw a sex toy onto the court. Police officers picked up the object and play resumed, but not before the moment went viral on social media.
Originally Published: July 29, 2025 at 10:11 AM PDT