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Two newcomers lead a complete team effort Friday night to power the Golden State Valkyries over the Los Angeles Sparks, 82-73, and capture their second consecutive win.
French rookies Carla Leite and Janelle Salaun scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, in a matchup that saw the team outshoot and outrebound their opponents in staving off their late-game comeback attempt.
After trading leads in the first quarter, the Valkyries opened up their lead in the second, and lead by 14 points at halftime. In the third quarter they had a 20-point lead when the Sparks stepped up their defense and began cutting the deficit.
“We were expecting them to have a run,” Salaun said. “But we stayed composed and showed that we can close out games.”
Los Angeles cut the lead to 5 twice in the last frame, but Salaun, Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton made free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Golden State is now 2-1.
“We ramped up our defense….and got stops and pushed,” coach Natalie Nakase said. “It starts with our defense, and when we play in space, we’re unguardable.”
Dearica Hamby lead Los Angeles with 25 points, while Kelsey Plum scored 16.
Coach Lynne Roberts said her team got lost in the second period, and couldn’t recover.
“I was really frustrated with the second quarter. We missed some shots that I think we were expecting to make and then that just affected our defense and we stopped the game plan,” Roberts said. “Like we weren’t running, we weren’t moving it, we got caught trying to do too much one on one. We’ve got to fix it. We’ve got to put up a full 40 minutes together. We haven’t done it yet this season.”
“They played harder. They played with more intensity. I thought in the fourth quarter, we finally played with the urgency it takes to win this league…so credit to them. They beat us.”
Golden State is now 2-1, and continue to New York, where they will face the Liberty Tuesday. The Sparks have now lost their last 3 games, and host the struggling Chicago Sky Sunday.
