Valkyries vs. Wings: Arike Ogunbowale’s Record 45 Forces Winner-Take-All Game 3

Valkyries vs Wings looked like a first-round series close to over.

Golden State had already beaten Dallas 104-80 in Game 1, had swept the regular-season series, and was only a few seconds away from closing out Game 2 in Texas.

Then Arike Ogunbowale made one of the biggest shots of the WNBA postseason.

With Dallas trailing late in regulation, Ogunbowale hit an off-balance corner 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds remaining to tie the game at 93. The Wings survived the final possession, reached overtime, and eventually pulled away for a 108-100 victory that evened the best-of-three series at 1-1. WNBA

Ogunbowale finished with 45 points, a WNBA single-game playoff scoring record. WNBA

Now the entire series comes down to one night.

Dallas and Golden State return to San Francisco for a winner-take-all Game 3 on Friday, October 2, at Chase Center. WNBA.com lists tipoff for 9 p.m. ET. WNBA

A series that appeared one-sided three days ago suddenly has no margin for error.

How the Wings forced Game 3

Game 2 was very different from the opener.

Golden State had controlled Game 1 almost from the moment the second quarter began. The Valkyries outscored Dallas 37-11 in that period, hit 18 3-pointers for the game and won 104-80 at Chase Center. valkyries.wnba.com

Dallas entered Game 2 needing a complete reversal.

It did not get an easy one.

The Wings had to survive a career night from Gabby Williams, a poor shooting performance from Paige Bueckers and several chaotic possessions in the final seconds of regulation before finally separating in overtime.

The result was 108-100, but the eight-point final margin does not really describe how fragile the game was.

For most of the night, one or two possessions separated extending Dallas’ season from ending it.

Then Ogunbowale took over.

Arike Ogunbowale scored a WNBA playoff-record 45

There are big playoff performances, and then there are nights that immediately become part of league history.

Ogunbowale scored 45 points, breaking the WNBA record for points in a playoff game. Her previous postseason career high had been only 24. WNBA

The number becomes even more impressive when you look at when the points arrived.

She scored 22 points across the fourth quarter and overtime — 11 in each period. WNBA

In other words, the deeper Dallas moved into elimination territory, the more Ogunbowale took control.

Her biggest sequence came at the exact moment the Wings needed it most.

Dallas was down three with only seconds remaining in regulation. Ogunbowale worked herself into the corner and hit a difficult 3-pointer to make it 93-93 with 4.1 seconds left. WNBA

The game was not over.

But Dallas’ season was still alive.

The shot that saved Dallas’ season

Calling Ogunbowale’s tying 3-pointer important almost understates it.

If she misses, Golden State is probably preparing for the semifinals.

Instead, the final seconds became messy.

Gabby Williams was initially called for an offensive foul on Golden State’s next inbound play, which would have sent Dallas to the free-throw line with a chance to move ahead. Replay overturned that call, leading to a center-court jump ball with three seconds remaining. Golden State’s final desperation attempt missed, sending the game to overtime. WNBA

Ogunbowale did not cool off.

She banked in a 3-pointer to start overtime and later made another from deep that gave Dallas a 103-100 lead with 1:46 remaining. The Valkyries never scored again. WNBA

That final stretch is what separates a historic scoring total from a historic playoff performance.

Ogunbowale did not accumulate 45 points while the outcome was already decided.

She scored the points that kept deciding it.

Golden State had its own huge performance

It would be easy to tell Game 2 entirely through Ogunbowale.

That would miss half the story.

Gabby Williams scored a career-high 36 points for the Valkyries, the highest-scoring game of her WNBA career in either the regular season or playoffs. She finished 12-of-23 from the field. WNBA

Williams kept Golden State in position to close the series and repeatedly answered Dallas runs.

Kaila Charles added 14 points and Kayla Thornton scored 13. WNBA

The problem was what happened once overtime reached its final minutes.

Williams missed all six of her attempts over the final 1:31 of overtime, while Golden State as a team went just 2-of-12 in the extra period. WNBA

That is a brutal contrast.

For four quarters, the Valkyries did enough offensively to put themselves within seconds of the semifinals.

Once the game reached overtime, Dallas finally created separation.

Paige Bueckers had a rare off night

The Wings winning an elimination game with Paige Bueckers struggling may be almost as significant as Ogunbowale scoring 45.

Bueckers finished with 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting. WNBA

That was a sharp change from Game 1, when she scored 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting in her WNBA postseason debut. Dallas Wings

Usually, a No. 7 seed cannot afford for one of its stars to shoot that poorly while facing elimination against the No. 2 seed.

Dallas survived because Ogunbowale produced something extraordinary and because other players filled important gaps.

Alysha Clark tied her postseason career high with 21 points, while Aziaha James added 13. WNBA

That matters going into Game 3.

Dallas does not need Ogunbowale to score another 45 if Bueckers returns closer to her usual level.

Golden State knows that too.

Game 2 looked nothing like Game 1

The first game made this series look badly mismatched.

Golden State won 104-80 and produced the highest-scoring game in franchise history. The Valkyries hit 18 of 36 3-pointers, matching their franchise record, while eight different players made at least one shot from beyond the arc. valkyries.wnba.com

Cecilia Zandalasini led Golden State with 22 points, Tiffany Hayes scored 21 off the bench and Williams had 20. valkyries.wnba.com

Dallas, meanwhile, watched the game disappear during that 37-11 second quarter.

The contrast in Game 2 was dramatic.

Zandalasini, who had been Golden State’s leading scorer in Game 1, was limited to five points on only three shot attempts in the rematch. WNBA

Ogunbowale went the opposite direction.

She scored just 10 points in Game 1. Dallas Wings

Three nights later, she scored 45.

That is how quickly a playoff series can change.

Dallas finally broke a long pattern against Golden State

This was not simply Dallas recovering from one bad game.

Golden State had been a difficult matchup for the Wings all season.

The Valkyries swept the 2026 regular-season series 3-0, and Golden State entered the playoffs having won six of the seven all-time regular-season meetings between the franchises. Dallas Wings+1

The Game 1 rout made that pattern look even stronger.

But playoff series have a way of narrowing everything down.

Regular-season records stop helping once an elimination game reaches the final possession.

Dallas needed one win.

Ogunbowale delivered it.

Now the previous head-to-head record matters less than what happens Friday night.

Golden State’s problem was not simply defense on Ogunbowale

There will obviously be a lot of attention on how the Valkyries defend Ogunbowale in Game 3.

That is unavoidable after 45 points.

But Golden State’s bigger concern may be what happened offensively in overtime.

The Valkyries scored just seven points in the extra period and missed 10 of their 12 field-goal attempts. WNBA

They had opportunities.

They simply stopped converting them.

That does not mean Golden State should panic.

This is still the team that went 32-12 during the regular season, earned the No. 2 seed and swept Dallas during their regular-season meetings. Dallas Wings

It is also returning home.

Golden State posted a 17-5 home record during the regular season, while Dallas went 16-6 at home. Dallas Wings

The first game at Chase Center showed how powerful that environment can become. The Valkyries drew a sellout crowd of 18,064 for Game 1. valkyries.wnba.com

Game 3 will put Dallas back into that building, this time with the season of both teams attached to every possession.

Valkyries vs. Wings Game 3: date, time and location

There is nothing complicated about the series anymore.

Dallas Wings at Golden State Valkyries
Date: Friday, October 2, 2026
Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT
Location: Chase Center, San Francisco
Series: Tied 1-1
Format: Winner advances, loser is eliminated

The official WNBA Game 3 page confirms the October 2 matchup and 9 p.m. ET tipoff. WNBA

The winner moves on to the WNBA semifinals.

What is at stake in Game 3

Golden State entered the postseason trying to take another major step in only its second season as a franchise.

The Valkyries reached the playoffs during their inaugural 2025 season but were swept in the opening round. Game 1 against Dallas was the first playoff victory in franchise history. valkyries.wnba.com

A Game 3 victory would give Golden State its first postseason series win.

Dallas has a different story.

The Wings returned to the postseason in 2026 after missing the previous two years and finished the regular season 27-17, a franchise record for wins since the organization relocated to North Texas. Dallas Wings

After losing by 24 in Game 1, Dallas could have disappeared quickly.

Instead, its season now comes down to the same single game as Golden State’s.

That is what makes Friday interesting.

Neither team has to explain the first two games anymore.

They just have to win the third.

My view

The most interesting thing about Game 2 is not simply that Arike Ogunbowale scored 45 points.

It is how dramatically she changed the emotional direction of the series.

After Game 1, Golden State looked deeper, more balanced and more comfortable with the matchup. The Valkyries had beaten Dallas throughout the regular season and then turned the playoff opener into a 24-point blowout.

By the closing seconds of Game 2, it still looked as though that pattern would hold.

Then Ogunbowale made the shot.

What happened afterward matters because the Wings did not merely survive until overtime and hope for another break. They took control once they got there.

That gives Dallas something it did not have after Game 1: proof that it can beat this team with its season on the line.

It also gives Golden State a fairly clear challenge.

The Valkyries do not necessarily need to erase Ogunbowale completely. Asking any defense to guarantee that after a performance like this is unrealistic.

They need to avoid allowing one extraordinary scorer to determine the final possessions again, while getting back to the offensive balance that made Game 1 look so easy.

Game 3 should tell us which version of this matchup was closer to reality.

Conclusion

Valkyries vs. Wings is no longer a series about what Golden State did during the regular season or how badly Dallas lost Game 1.

It is one game.

Arike Ogunbowale made sure of that.

Her WNBA playoff-record 45 points, including the tying 3-pointer with 4.1 seconds left in regulation, carried Dallas to a 108-100 overtime victory and erased Golden State’s 1-0 series advantage. WNBA

Gabby Williams answered with 36 points of her own, Alysha Clark gave Dallas 21, and the Wings found a way to win despite Paige Bueckers shooting 3-of-13. WNBA

Now both teams head back to Chase Center.

Friday night will decide everything.

For Golden State, it is a chance to earn the first playoff series victory in franchise history.

For Dallas, it is a chance to turn a series that began with a 24-point defeat into one of the better first-round comebacks of the 2026 postseason.

And after what Ogunbowale just did in Game 2, predicting how ordinary Game 3 will look seems like a dangerous idea.

Reporting and official information referenced in this article: WNBA — Official Game 2 Recap, WNBA — Official Game 2 Box Score, WNBA — Official Game 3 Page, and Golden State Valkyries — Game 1 Recap.

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