SAN FRANCISCO – Chase Center featured, perhaps, the longest first half in WNBA history on Sunday night.
The first half of the game between the Valkyries and Fever at Chase Center featured three stoppages, totaling around 32 minutes total. The initial two quarters took an hour and 40 minutes to play.
The first stoppage occurred two minutes into the game, resulting in a 25-minute stoppage as the arena crew wheeled out auxiliary clocks onto the baseline and turned off the main clocks above the baskets.
Most of the Fever players – including the injured Caitlin Clark – went back to the locker room.
Meanwhile the Valkyries went through a second shootaround to stay warm until the clock situation was fixed.
During the stoppage, 49ers players George Kittle, Ricky Pearsall and Kyle Juszczyk took their seats next to Golden State owner Joe Lacob, and the in-game entertainment had the 18,064 fans in the sold out arena dancing and laughing for almost half an hour.
The Valkyries put out the following statement midway through the first quarter.
“Earlier today the Golden State Valkyries were delayed due to a technical issue with the shot clocks due to a power outage this morning,” the statement read. “Game play has resumed, and these issues will be addressed accordingly.”
That was not the end of the timekeeping-related problems, though.
All was well until the seven-minute mark of the second quarter, when, once again, officials halted play. But this time, the issue was resolved in only four minutes.
With 3:44 left in the second quarter, the game paused for another two minutes as the teams experienced a third clock-related issue.
And in case there were not enough pauses in the action, officials stopped the game several other times for lengthy reviews — some initiated by coaches — on foul calls.
After all of that, the Valkyries went into the locker room leading the Fever 44-32. When play resumed in the third quarter, the clocks at the top of the backboard were back in working condition, and the reserve equipment on the baselines were taken back into storage.