{"id":4622,"date":"2026-07-16T04:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4622"},"modified":"2026-07-16T04:36:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T04:36:32","slug":"kaitlyn-chen-takes-over-in-second-half-leads-valkyries-to-win-over-caitlin-clark-led-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4622","title":{"rendered":"Kaitlyn Chen takes over in second half, leads Valkyries to win over Caitlin Clark-led Fever"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The fans inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse gathered to watch Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever notch a win over the league\u2019s best defense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Court targets Thanksgiving conclusion for murder retrial in Sierra LaMar disappearance<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, they watched <\/span>Kaitlyn Chen<\/span> take the air out of the building with a barrage of buckets in the second half until the raucous crowd had nothing left to shout about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chen<\/span> was surgical in the final two quarters, scoring all 14 of her points as the Valkyries pulled away for a 88-75 win over the Fever. It\u2019s Golden State\u2019s eighth straight win and the latest proof that Chen has been one of the driving forces during the second-year franchise\u2019s long winning streak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all my teammates,\u201d Chen said on the USA Network broadcast. \u201cI feel like they\u2019ve been shooting so well that everything just started to open up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valkyries needed exactly that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indiana had crept back within striking distance early in the third quarter, and Gainbridge was rocking, sensing a signature Fever win in the making.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chen had other ideas. She caught fire from the field and turned every Fever run into a false start, answering each Indiana bucket with one of her own until the building went quiet, and stayed that way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just fun to watch,\u201d Valkyries All-Star Gabby Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s just like the way she loves to play the game. It gets all of us up and hyped too, and we just feed it off of that energy. It\u2019s always really fun to see her reward herself on the offensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Williams led the Valkyries with 16 points while Tiffany Hayes scored 13, Janelle Sala\u00fcn added 12 and Kayla Thornton 11. Cecilia Zandalasini was Golden State\u2019s sixth double-figure scorer with 10 points.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Valkyries held Fever superstar Clark to 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field. Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 20 points.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Golden State now owns the season series over the Fever, beating them two out of three times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After building a 40-30 lead by halftime, the Valkyries went through a drought in the third quarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Indiana outscored Golden State 21-18 in the third period and took its first lead of the game on a pair of free throws from Sophie Cunningham at the 2:31 mark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Chen\u2019s takeover saw the former Connecticut standout score 12 points in a three-minute span, including 10 straight to end the quarter, giving the Valkyries a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Fever couldn\u2019t stay in front of Chen as she used an array of crossover dribbles and ambidextrous finishes over the much bigger Indiana defenders.\u00a0<\/span>The Valkyries used Chen\u2019s scoring to extend their lead even further in the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Golden State opened the final 10 minutes with a 8-2 run and never looked back as it withstood some late charges to finally cruise to a solid road win.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coming off five days of rest, the Valkyries looked fresh to open the game. Golden State started with a 12-2 run to silence a rowdy Indiana crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fever recovered and kept things close behind a few big plays from Clark and Mitchell, but lost their momentum midway through the second quarter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After scoring her first points of the game on a driving layup on the right side of the basket, Clark took a fall after receiving contact from Valkyries center Kiah Stokes. The former Iowa standout hobbled back on defense and was subbed out for the rest of the first half shortly after.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clark eventually returned to the game in the second half, but the Valkyries took advantage.\u00a0<\/span>When Clark went out, Golden State ended the first half on a 9-3 run to take a 10-point lead into the halftime break.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The visiting team forced eight turnovers through the first two quarters and got an efficient 11 points from Williams to build its double-digit lead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Valkyries have been dominant during their eight-game winning streak. Despite scoring 80 or more points just twice during this stretch, the Valkyries have not conceded more than 80 points.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we play hard every game and we really rely on our defense,\u201d Chen said. \u201cOur defense has been really great the last few games.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Wednesday\u2019s win the Valkyries (18-7) are now alone in second place in the league standings, one game behind Minnesota (19-6).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said she wants her team to not focus on the winning streak as she believes there is still room to get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to focus just one game at a time because at the end of the day, we\u2019re really trying to prepare for down the line,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cWe have to get better. To me, 17 turnovers is too many. That\u2019s uncharacteristic for us, and so we got to clean up that and clean up to our execution in terms of our spacing, press break. Those those things to me were sticking out, and then attention to detail in the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Golden State will return home on Saturday when it plays the Washington Mystics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chen scores 12 points in third quarter to lead Valkyries to crucial road win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nKaitlyn Chen takes over in second half, leads Valkyries to win over Caitlin Clark-led Fever - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4622\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kaitlyn Chen takes over in second half, leads Valkyries to win over Caitlin Clark-led Fever - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chen scores 12 points in third quarter to lead Valkyries to crucial road win\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4622\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-16T04:36:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Kaitlyn Chen takes over in second half, leads Valkyries to win over Caitlin Clark-led Fever\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-16T04:36:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622\"},\"wordCount\":885,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/66a3d97fbe4cfe358ce7579d614b01f6.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4622\",\"name\":\"Kaitlyn Chen takes over in second half, leads Valkyries to win over Caitlin Clark-led Fever - 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