Gabby Williams scored 28 of her 30 points after halftime on Saturday night, a WNBA Finals record for a single half, and the Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in the first Game 7 in the league’s Finals history. Williams was named Finals MVP.
Black women carried both sides. Williams, Tiffany Hayes and Veronica Burton were central to the Valkyries’ title run, and Jordin Canada and Angel Reese played for an Atlanta team that forced the first seven-game Finals in the league’s 30 years.
The game drew a sellout crowd of 18,064 to Chase Center in San Francisco. Williams took over in the third quarter, scoring 15 points, then hit a 31-foot three-pointer with 2:18 left, as Yahoo Sports reported. She averaged 19.6 points across the series.
Burton made free throws with 5.1 seconds remaining to close it out. Kiah Stokes, who pulled down 13 rebounds in the clincher, won her fourth career title and finished the series with 19 blocks, a league record, according to NBC Sports.
The Valkyries won the championship in their second season, the fastest any expansion team in American professional sports has done it, according to NBC Sports. The title came 534 days after the franchise played its first game.
For Hayes, it took 14 WNBA seasons to get here. This was her first championship.
“When you work and when you put your head down and you grind, anything is possible,” Burton said.
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