Tiffany Hayes Does It All Against Sky, Chris Freeman Nets First Career NFL Points
Azura Stevens at Golden State “Huskies”
What didn’t Tiffany Hayes do on Wednesday night? The 2009-2010 back-to-back national champion poured in a season-high 22 points along with a season-best six rebounds, five assists, three steals and one block in just 17 minutes off the bench as the Golden State Valkyries took care of the Chicago Sky 91-71 in San Francisco. It was the first 20-point game of the season for Hayes and the 66th such game of her 14-year career.
Gabby Williams added 13 points, and Kaitlyn Chen knocked down a pair of three-pointers in 21 minutes of action. Kiah Stokes did not play as she is in concussion protocol. Azura Stevens scored four points in 17 minutes for the Sky.
The Valkyries trailed for the majority of the first half as Hayes was keeping her team in the ball game. With under two minutes left in the opening quarter, Hayes canned a three-pointer from the corner, then stole an inbounds pass, which set her up for an easy fastbreak layup to trim the Sky lead to 19-16.
The second quarter began with another Hayes flurry as she took a bounce pass off a cut, made the basket and was fouled. She knocked in the free throw to cut the deficit to 24-19. After a Stevens layup pushed the Sky lead back up to seven, Hayes opened it up for her teammates, finding Veronica Burton and Kalia Charles for back-to-back three-pointers to trim the Sky lead to one, 26-25. Three minutes later, Hayes once again anticipated the passing lanes by picking off an errant pass and racing the other way for an open layup to give the Valkyries their first lead of the game, 35-33 with 5:42 to play in the first half.
Williams scored the first Valkyries basket of the second half for a three-point lead. But once again, it was the Tiffany Hayes show as she scored nine straight points in a two-minute span, capped off with an and-one layup with the shot clock expiring. Hayes made the free throw to push the lead to 62-55. Then, to finish off the third quarter, the 2024 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year found Chen for two three-pointers in the final 72 seconds that electrified the home crowd and gave Golden State a 72-58 lead going into the final ten minutes of regulation.
Golden State outscored Chicago 19-13 in the fourth quarter to wrap up their 20-point victory. The Valkyries (24-9) extended their win streak to five games, while the Sky dropped to 12-22. Golden State and Minnesota are tied for the most home wins in the WNBA, with 14 apiece.
Kia Nurse at Paige Bueckers
The Dallas Wings snapped a three-game losing streak on Wednesday night after defeating the Toronto Tempo 94-88 in Texas. Paige Bueckers scored all of her 22 points in the second half. She also finished with a game-high eight assists and three steals. Kia Nurse erupted for 16 points off the bench behind 6-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-8 from three in 22 minutes off the bench.
The Wings led by as many as 15 points in the early part of the second quarter, but thanks to Nurse, the Tempo got back into the ball game. The 2015 AAC Freshman of the Year connected on her first three-pointer of the ball game to cut the Tempo deficit to 32-20. Nearly three minutes later, Nurse found Laura Juskaite for a triple as the visitors trimmed the Dallas lead to just five. On Toronto’s next two possessions, Nurse hit back-to-back three-pointers. The first came after she got Bueckers in the air with a shot fake and then off a handoff from Isabelle Harrison to narrow the Toronto gap to just one, 36-35.
Despite being held scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting in the first half, Bueckers did dish out five assists as the Wings led 45-37 at halftime. Bueckers sank her first shot of the game in the second half and just look at how relieved she was to see the ball go through the hoop!
That basket was not good news for the Tempo as it woke up the second-year guard. Bueckers shot a perfect 4-of-4, including four more free throws, totaling 13 points in the third quarter and at one point brought the Wings to their largest lead of the game at 62-44.
Bueckers kept the foot on the gas pedal in the fourth quarter by scoring nine points to try and fend off the pesky Tempo. Nurse buried her fourth three-pointer of the night in the corner off a skip pass with 2:02 left to play to pull her team within five, 89-84. However, Bueckers put the dagger in the Tempo after delivering a pull-up jumper with 25.7 seconds left to give the Wings a 94-88 lead.
Azzi Fudd missed her third consecutive game with a right knee injury. The win marked the Wings’ first in four tries without her in the lineup. Dallas has already ruled Fudd out for their matchup against the Indiana Fever on Friday night. The Wings have not given any sort of timetable for a possible return for the rookie guard.
The Wings improved to 20-14 while the Tempo have now lost 10 games in a row and are 10-23 on the season.
Naphessa Collier/Dorka Juhasz at Serah Williams
It was a tale of two halves, but the Minnesota Lynx won their third straight game after taking down the Portland Fire 85-81 in Oregon on Wednesday night. Naphessa Collier netted a game-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 6-of-7 from the free throw line. She also added nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks in 33 minutes. Dorka Juhasz scored two points in seven minutes, while Serah Williams tallied six points and four rebounds in 17 minutes off the Fire bench.
Collier caught fire in the first quarter, scoring 14 of those 20 points in the opening 10 minutes. In three minutes she scored eight consecutive Lynx points, starting with a tough turnaround jumper for a 13-7 lead. After a pair of free throws, Collier received a bounce pass in the lane off a slipped screen and finished it with a layup. The 2019 WNBA Rookie of the Year completed her run with another set of two free throws with just over three minutes left in the quarter. A minute later, Collier scored on another layup off an assist from Olivia Miles and a 23-13 Minnesota lead.
The Lynx went to halftime with a 57-33 lead and even led by 27 after Collier converted an and-one layup with 8:57 left in the third quarter. However, the Fire, playing in its inaugural season, fought back as they ended the quarter on a 16-4 run to cut the deficit to 68-51.
While working in the post, Williams found Teja Obiak open at the top of the key for a three-pointer to bring it to a 10-point game, 68-58, with 7:21 left in the fourth quarter. The Fire cut the lead down to three with under five minutes to play, but Collier put in a layup to give the Lynx a 74-69 lead. The Fire would eventually make it a one-point game, however the Lynx were able to close out their WNBA-leading 28th victory of the season.
Breanna Stewart
On Tuesday, Breanna Stewart scored 19 points with seven rebounds and five assists in a 106-92 loss to the Indiana Fever. The loss snapped a four-game Liberty win streak.
However, the Liberty bounced back on Thursday night after taking down the Los Angeles Sparks 85-81. Stewart finished with 11 points along with six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Stewart’s third assist of the game was her 500th in a New York Liberty uniform, making her the fourth player in franchise history with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists, according to @NYL_Stats/X.
Stewart’s biggest basket came with 1:59 left in the fourth quarter, a pull-up jumper to give the Liberty an 80-74 lead.
The Liberty (21-12) have won five out of their last six contests, while the Sparks dropped to 12-21 on the year.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa/Aaliyah Edwards
Aaliyah Edwards was one of the few bright spots for the Connecticut Sun in their 104-69 loss to the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night. The former Husky star scored a team-high 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. It was her second straight game in double-digits and five out of six overall. During this six-game stretch, Edwards is averaging 12.2 points per game on 63.0 percent from the field.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored three points and pulled down four rebounds in 17 minutes.
The Sun fell to 8-24 while the Dream improved to 21-12 on the season.
Chris Freeman (Houston Texans)
The former UConn placekicker signed a deal with the Houston Texans on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, he made his professional debut after converting his first career extra point after the Texans scored a first-quarter touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Freeman missed his first field-goal attempt, a 61-yarder just before halftime that sailed wide right.
Those were his only two chances as the Texans lost to the Chargers 27-7.
Eric Watts
The former Husky defensive linemen was waived by the New York Jets on Wednesday. Watts suffered an undisclosed injury during training camp and was set to miss the entire 2026 season per Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Houston.
In two seasons with the Jets, Watts recorded 23 tackles in 18 games played.
Azura Stevens (Chicago Sky)
- Monday at Storm: 9 points (4-9 FG, 1-2 FT), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks in 24 minutes.
Kia Nurse (Toronto Tempo)
- Monday at Dream: Scoreless in 3 minutes. The Atlanta Dream defeated the Toronto Tempo 107-95. The Tempo (10-22) have nine games in a row and 13 out of their last 14.
Stefanie Dolson (Seattle Storm)
- Monday vs Sky: 6 points (2-5 FG, 2-2 3-FG), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal in 10 minutes.
Katie Lou Samuelson (Seattle Storm)
- Monday vs Sky: Missed second straight game with a right knee injury. The Storm (7-28) defeated the Chicago Sky 97-88.
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