Valkyries Hold Storm Under 70 for 6th Straight Game in 70-57 Win

The Golden State Valkyries closed out their regular-season home slate in style, routing the Seattle Storm 70-57 in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center on Saturday night — the team’s 22nd sellout of the season and 44th overall across two consecutive seasons.

Golden State jumped out early and never looked back, leading for 39 minutes of the game without a single tie or lead change. The Valkyries built their advantage with a dominant second quarter, outscoring Seattle 28-6 to take a 49-25 lead into halftime, and stretched their cushion to as many as 32 points before coasting to the finish.

Kaila Charles led the way with 16 points and 12 rebounds, recording her second double-double of the season while setting new season highs and tying career highs in both categories. She also tied her career high with three steals, going 7 of 17 from the field in 29 minutes. Justė Jocytė provided a spark off the bench with a career-high 11 points, shooting 4 of 7 from the field and a perfect 3 for 3 from three-point range. Laeticia Amihere also finished with 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting and went a perfect 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Tiffany Hayes added 10 points and a game-high six assists in just over 19 minutes of action, while Kaitlyn Chen chipped in 10 points, two assists and a steal despite a quieter shooting night at 4 of 12 from the field. Veronica Burton rounded out the balanced Golden State attack with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and a steal, going 2 for 2 from the free-throw line.

Golden State’s defense was just as impressive as its offense. Kayla Thornton tied her season high with four steals, one shy of her career best, and grabbed six rebounds. Kiah Stokes anchored the interior with a team-high nine rebounds and four of the Valkyries’ seven blocks on the night. As a team, Golden State forced 17 Seattle turnovers while committing only 10 of its own, and out-stole the Storm 12-6. The Valkyries’ bench also made a major impact, outscoring Seattle’s reserves 32-16.

With the win, Golden State became the first team to hold opponents to 70 or fewer points in six straight games since the New York Liberty accomplished the feat in 2017.

Seattle got a strong individual effort from Flau’jae Johnson, who led all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting, including 3 of 6 from three-point range, to go with five assists. Awa Fam added eight points off the bench, and Taylor Thierry contributed seven points and three assists. But the Storm shot just 33.3 percent from the field for the game and never found consistent offensive rhythm, particularly in a second quarter in which they managed only six points on 2-of-17 shooting.

Golden State head coach Natalie Nakase praised Charles’s two-way impact after the game. “She’s just a beast. Honestly, I can put Kai [Kaila Charles] on anyone, she can guard one through five. That’s how valuable Kai is to us. She, to me, never gets fatigued, and now we’re asking her to create and get to the paint and finish and make some rim reads, and so her ability to not just be a defender is really effective on the offensive side. I love it… Really impressed that Kai just wants to continue to learn and be better and impact winning at any moment.”

Nakase also highlighted Amihere’s energy off the bench. “You could see her energy was still high. I mean, the first time I subbed her in, I don’t think I even took her out for a really long time. It just flowed – her defense to the offense. So, her ability to block the shots and then push in transition. I mean, those are the plays that create extra possessions and obviously easy offense. She’s playing with so much confidence right now. I mean whatever she did on the break… she gained a lot of confidence in our mini-camp, super valuable.”

Amihere returned the praise for her teammate’s double-double performance. “I think she’s tenacious. I think she not only has an eye for the ball but she seeks it. She takes the rebounds that are outside of her body as well, she’s going to get them. Obviously, it relieves some pressure when we’re trying to box out the bigs.”

Charles reflected on what it meant to close out the home schedule with a win in front of the Chase Center crowd. “Every time we get to step on the court and play the game that we love, it’s fun. It was great that we finally had a back-to-back at home and were able to have our last two home games with our crowd until the playoffs. It’s just fun to play. I mean, I love playing with these girls. Every time we get together, we just have a great time.”

The Valkyries improve to 31-11 on the season, while the Storm fall to 8-34. Golden State will hit the road next, visiting Portland on Tuesday, September 22, with tipoff set for 7:00 p.m. PT.