The Golden State Valkyries call their home floor “Ballhalla,” a place of glory and triumph.
For all they’ve accomplished in their expansion season, Valkyries have yet to figure out how to take “Ballhalla” on the road.
The Atlanta Dream used a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to take command en route to a 90-81 win Monday night over Golden State at Gateway Center. The Dream outscored the Valkyries 26-13 in the fourth quarter.
The Valkyries fall to 9-9 and are 2-6 on the road as opposed to 7-3 at Chase Center. Both road wins came in Los Angeles against the Sparks, meaning they have yet to win a WNBA game out of the state of California.
Golden State was coming of a loss in Minnesota in a game in which they were also competitive, only to let things get away late.
Atlanta, which got 24 points from All-Star Allisha Gray, improved to 12-8.
Turnovers helped doom the Valkyries, who had 21 in all in a game and seven in the last five minutes. They led by as much as 12 points in the first half. Atlanta scored 27 points off turnovers.
“We’re not going to win any game with 21 turnovers,” All-Star forward Kayla Thornton said. “We’ve got to go back into the books, sit down together, re-evaluate each other, re-evaluate ourselves and figure out what we have to do. We have two big games coming up to finish this road trip.”
Forward Monique Billings led Golden State with 19 points, with Thornton scoring 15 and Tiffany Hayes 12. For Atlanta, Naz Hillman had 16 points and Brionna Jones 14.
Billings resisted blaming the venue.
“I don’t know if the road has anything to do with it,” Billings said. “I think it’s just about us being consistent. We started out great, threw the first punch and that’s a really good team. Credit to them. It comes down to us being consistent, building off the losses and learning from them.”
Golden State built its early lead with the help of 3-pointers, hitting its first five in a row. For the rest of the night, they were 6-for-26 on 3-point attempts.
In a game where the teams appeared pretty equal in terms of physicality, Atlanta had 24 free throws (making 21) while Golden State had just nine, making them all.
“They get 15 more free throws, and we lost the game by nine,” coach Natalie Nakase said. “I get it. Home cooking. But to me, I thought for sure. We were going up just as aggressive as their players and we just did not get the whistle. I’m going to keep fighthing for my players, and 24-to-9 is just too much for me.”
The Valkyries took a 68-64 lead on a follow shot by Billings off a missed 3-point attempt from Kate Martin as time was running out in the third quarter.
After leading the first quarter by 10 points, the Valkyries began to misfire from 3-point range and the Dream climbed back into the game. Atlanta even led by as much as 43-37 after a step-back 3-pointer by Gray with 2:08 left in the half.
Golden State, however, closed with an 8-0 run that included 3-pointers by Thornton and Hayes and led 45-43 at halftime.
The Valkyries hit 17 of 32 first-half shots (53.1 percent) to 43.8 percent for the Dream (14-for-32), but Atlanta scored 14 points off 11 Golden State turnovers.
Billings, inserted into the starting lineup, led the Valkyries with 11 points in 11 minutes in the opening half. Gray had 16 and Brittney Griner 10 for Atlanta.
The Valkyries led 26-16 after the first quarter as Veronica Burton hit all three of her long-distance attempts for nine points. Billings had eight in the first quarter and made her only 3-pointer.
In contrast to its previous loss to Minnesota, where Golden State gave up 25 points in the first quarter, the Dream were limited to 6-for-17 (35.7 percent) shooting in the opening quarter. Atlant’s Gray had nine points in the quarter.
Kudos for K.T.
Nakase was happy for Thornton, a 10-year veteran, in becoming the first player in franchise history to be named as a WNBA All-Star selection.
“I actually got chills when I found out,” Nakase told reporters in her pregame press briefing. “Especially with K.T., we weren’t aiming for that. It wasn’t a goal. It was, `let’s be authentically you and what I loved about K.T. is, she kept hitting almost game winners, and she said I’m just wanting to show up and be myself. It was the same answer over and over again . . . she’s always guarding the top player, closing games. It’s huge.”
It was Thornton’s first All-Star selection.