Despite the return of star point guard Carla Leite, the Portland Fire fell last night to the Golden State Valkyries 82-66.
Playing against her former team, Leite struggled early, with four straight misses to begin the game. She finished with 12 points and 6 assists, and the Fire were led by Frieda Bühner’s 14 points off the bench.
After a narrow 20-19 Portland edge through one quarter, Golden State’s impressive 3 point shooting changed the game. After surrendering a Juste Jocyte three pointer with 9:37 till halftime, the Fire trailed 22-20. A Kayla Thornton triple with 2:25 left extended the Valkyries’ advantage to double digits, and they went into halftime up 40-30.
Early in the third quarter, Holly Winterburn managed to cut the deficit to 5 with a jumper between the blocks of the paint. That was the closest Portland came to a comeback the rest of the night, with Golden State closing the period up 67-49 after Kaitlyn Chen nailed a 30 foot jumper.
The Valkyries led by as much as 26 in the fourth quarter, before Portland rallied back for a more respectable final score.
The Fire fall to 16-26, and will return to action tomorrow at 4 PM PST against the Los Angeles Sparks.