Paige Bueckers shot the basketball as cleanly as a first-round opener allows and still spent most of the night staring at a double-digit deficit. Twenty-one points. Nine makes in 10 attempts from the field.
Two threes without a miss. Six rebounds. Two assists.
Twenty-five minutes. The Dallas Wings left Chase Center on the wrong end of a 104-80 Game 1 loss to the second-seeded Golden State Valkyries on Sunday night.
The Associated Press led with Cecilia Zandalasini's 22 points and Gabby Williams' 20 as Golden State "ran away from the Dallas Wings by halftime." The same wire noted Bueckers' 21 points on 9-for-10 shooting and six rebounds, adding she had 17 by the break on 7-of-8 shooting "but she didn't have much help."
The CBS Sports box shows Dallas at 6-for-20 from three while the Valkyries went 18-for-36.
One Wing kept pace; the quarter did not
Dallas trailed 21-20 after the first quarter. Bueckers had already buried two threes and finished through contact at the rim. Golden State answered with a 37-11 second quarter, the AP reported, building a 58-31 halftime lead on 10-of-20 three-point shooting before intermission. Tiffany Hayes added 21 points off the bench for the Valkyries.
Bueckers kept making midrange looks after halftime. Maddy Siegrist finished with 11 points, Arike Ogunbowale 10, and Kitija Laksa 11 off the bench. Odyssey Sims dealt seven assists in 15 minutes. None of it trimmed a Golden State lead that lived above 20 for most of the second half.
