Valkyries instant analysis: Golden State survives Mercury comeback

SAN FRANCISCO - The Valkyries almost blew it.

In front of a raucous home crowd, Golden State built a lead as large as 18 in the first half only to see the Mercury wither away at that advantage throughout the second half.

But behind a flurry of clutch buckets and key defensive stops down the stretch, the Valkyries escaped with a 87-81 at home to snap their two-game losing streak.

Veronica Burton and Gabby Williams had arguably their best game as a duo this season.

Burton finished with 25 points and Williams also had 25 against a physical Mercury defense.

“Obviously we would have would have preferred for it not to be that close and to be able to sustain our lead, but obviously we’ve lost a couple close ones,” Burton said. “So I think just being able to figure it out, even when things go wrong and when they hit tough shots, we just stayed together. I thought our composure took a really big leap tonight, just made winning plays, honestly. So it was a good one.”

Alyssa Thomas had 22 points and Monique Akoa Makani scored 19 for the Mercury.

The Valkyries closed the final six minutes of the first half outscoring the Mercury 18-5 to go into halftime with a 17-point lead.

After a slow first-half start, the Mercury woke up in the third quarter. Phoenix beat Golden State 29-17 in the third quarter behind 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc to cut the deficit to just six going into the final 10 minutes.

Makani cut the lead to three with a pull-up jumper at the 1:47 mark of the fourth quarter.

But the Valkyries responded in a big way.

Williams laid in a driving layup on assist from Burton to put the Valkyries up five. On the next possession, Williams came up with a huge steal to put the game away.

Burton goes off

The former Northwestern standout had one of her best games of the season.

After shooting an abysmal 1-for-8 from the 3-point line in Saturday's loss to the Aces, Burton hit two of her seven attempts.

Through the last four games, Burton had no more than 15 points but she got back on track when her team needed her the most.

The scoring came early as she had 19 points through the first two quarters. She also recorded eight assists while committing just two turnovers.

Hayes' solid minutes

Veteran Tiffany Hayes has been a rotation regular for the last few games, and it might stay that way after contributing solid minutes against Phoenix.

Hayes finished with seven points in 13 minutes and had a plus-minus rating of +11.

More DNP's for Amihere, Jocytė

After playing at least five minutes or more in her first three games she was active, rookie Justė Jocytė has registered her second straight DNP.

Backup center Laeticia Amihere has continued her fall out of Nakase's rotation, becoming a healthy scratch for her third straight game.

Nakase opted to run with Hayes, Janelle Salaün, Kaila Charles and Kaitlyn Chen off the bench.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 9:31 PM.