SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Iliana Rupert scored a career-high 21 points and the Golden State Valkyries beat the Indiana Fever 75-63 on Sunday night to move closer to a playoff berth in their first season.
The Valkyries (21-18) shot 7 for 8 on 3-pointers in the first quarter and led by 20 before finishing 12 for 19 behind the arc — five from Rupert — and trimmed their magic number to three with five games remaining. They are 2 1/2 games ahead of Los Angeles and bunched with the Fever (21-19) and Seattle (22-19) for playoff seeding.
Janelle Salaun and Kate Martin both added 10 points for Golden State and Veronica Burton had 13 assists.
Reserve Aerial Powers scored 17 points to lead the Fever, who are still without reigning Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark. Kelsey Mitchell had 14 points and Natasha Howard 13 but Aliyah Boston was held to four, almost 12 below her average.
The game had a long delay in the opening minutes because of technical difficulties with the shot clocks, which went out with the Fever on top 3-2. After it was determined to play with temporary shot clocks on the baseline, ending a 20-minute delay, the Valkyries took off, making four consecutive 3s.
By the end of the quarter the Valkyries had a 25-14 lead and a franchise record for 3s in a quarter.
They quickly pushed the lead to 20 but the Fever recovered from the foul line and trailed 44-32 at the half.
Indiana pulled to 55-50 with 7 1/2 minutes to play when the Valkyries began hitting 3s again. Golden State was 8 of 12 in the fourth quarter and Indiana was 5 of 15.
Fever visit Phoenix on Tuesday, and Valkyries host New York.
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